One thing blunts the Supreme Court's decision to
curtail a president's recess powers. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid points it out:
Harry Reid on SCOTUS NLRB ruling: "More than anything, [it] underscores the importance of the rules reform Senate Dems enacted last Nov."
— @jbendery
Because the Senate Democrats finally enacted filibuster reform, breaking the 60-vote margin for the president's judicial and executive nominations, this ruling won't prevent the president from getting his nominees confirmed. It means that he won't have to resort to making recess appointments to get a nomination done. That's the case, anyway, as long as the president and the Senate majority are of the same party and a simple majority vote can prevail. And it's the case as long as this Senate rules change remains in place.
The Court's ruling strongly upholds the separation of powers: the ability for the houses of Congress to determine things like when they are in session and when they are not. One of the powers of the Congress is to determine its own rules, which the Senate did last year when it passed filibuster reform to break the stranglehold the minority Republicans had on President Obama's nominees.
This decision should empower Senate Democrats to make use of their singular ability to stop the minority from totally gumming up the works. They've done it once, which makes this decision less damaging than it could have been. They can do it again, and expand the ability of the majority—the people that the majority of voters elected to run things—to make the Senate function again.