The President staffs the government: Cabinet secretaries, agency heads, ambassadors, U.S. attorneys, and every federal judge arrive by presidential nomination. Judicial appointments are the presidency's longest lever, judges serve for life, decades past the administration that chose them.
Read the clause itself, verbatim and in plain language, in the in-app Constitution.
The President, with Senate confirmation for principal officers
Principal officers require Senate advice and consentThe Senate's shared role in appointments and treaties: nominations need a Senate majority; treaties need two-thirds.Full definition in the glossary; Congress may vest appointment of inferior officers in the President alone, department heads, or the courts. Recess appointments can fill vacancies temporarily but expire with the next Senate session, and the Senate's pro forma sessions now mostly block them. The flip side, removal, is where the constitutional fights live: at-will for most executive officers, contested for independent agencies.
U.S. Senate, About Nominations
Terms to know: advice and consentThe Senate's shared role in appointments and treaties: nominations need a Senate majority; treaties need two-thirds.Full definition in the glossary · recess appointmentA temporary appointment the President can make without Senate confirmation while the Senate is in recess; it expires at the end of the next session.Full definition in the glossary · removal powerThe President's contested authority to fire executive officers without Senate approval. Its reach over 'independent' agencies is an active constitutional battleground.Full definition in the glossary
