Obama Installs Feldblum

President Obama on Saturday took advantage of the congressional recess and installed 15 nominees whose appointments had been stalled by the Senate, The New York Times reports. Among the 15 is Georgetown law professor Chai Feldblum, a lesbian, who will serve on the five-member Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The nominees, who are expected to begin work next week, will be able to serve without Senate confirmation until the end of 2011.

"The United States Senate has the responsibility to approve or disapprove my nominees," Obama said in a statement. "But if, in the interest of scoring political points, Republicans in the Senate refuse to exercise that responsibility, I must act in the interest of the American people and exercise my authority to fill these positions on an interim basis."

In addition to being a Georgetown professor, Feldblum is also a director of the Georgetown Law Center's Federal Legislation and Administrative Clinic and once served as a clerk for Supreme Court justice Harry A. Blackmun.

Read the full Times story here.