The Supreme Court unanimously ruled Barack Obama overstepped his constitutional authority by pushing through recess appointments in 2012 because the president can’t declare when Congress is in recess. The case, National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) v. Noel Canning was brought by a private company that sued the federal government in 2012, arguing the NLRB did not have the authority to make a labor ruling against the company because the board’s quorum was made up of illegitimate appointees. During the 2012 December holiday break, Obama insisted the Senate was in recess so he could populate the board with his own appointments.

Obama, the former constitutional law professor, has never been a big fan of the Constitution, and he was hoping in 2012, just like this year, that his power grab would pass unnoticed. Well, at least not this time. Even his own liberal appointees Sonya Sotomayor and Elena Kagan believed he overstepped his power.

This decision was nothing less than a huge rebuke of the Obama administration – not only because the Court unanimously overturned the president’s convoluted view of his own constitutional power, but because it was the 12th time the Court unanimously overturned this president.

Oh, wait. Make that 13 times. As noted above, the High Court also threw out a Massachusetts law the Obama Justice Department defended calling for a protest-free buffer zone around abortion clinics. Just like the Noel Canning case was a slam-dunk against an executive power grab, this case was a slam-dunk against infringement on the First Amendment rights of pro-life groups.

Obama and his Attorney General Eric Holder have been refuted time and again by the Supreme Court in their attempts to reshape the power of the executive branch in their own image. Make no mistake; the checks to his power do not cover every single time they have gotten away with abuse. However, this administration’s performance before the Supreme Court is a sign this president won’t always succeed.

Consider in the past, the Justice Department has come out on top in close to 70% of the cases it has tried before the Supreme Court. In the last three Supreme Court terms, however, the Court has ruled against Obama a majority of the time. You’d have to go back to the power-mad administration of Franklin Roosevelt to find a similar win-loss ratio. And he had more than three terms to do his damage.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) called the Noel Canning decision “the Supreme Court’s biggest rebuke of any president … since 1974 when it ordered President Nixon to produce the Watergate tapes.” Obama is the president Nixon only dreamed of being.