The Constitution provides that the President "shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law; but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments."

It is also provided that the President "shall have power to fill all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session," and that he "shall commission all officers of the United States."