The Justice Department's legal justification for President Obama's two recent recess appointments is "a smokescreen," according to the American Center for Law and Justice.

The appointments bypassed Senate confirmation even though the Senate was still in session.

The Department of Justice issued a memo explaining the president's actions. But the ACLJ says the memo's legal reasoning is faulty and its only intent is to cover up the president's "unconstitutional actions."

"It should comes as no surprise that the President Obama's Justice Department produced a memo that is designed to justify the unconstitutional appointments made while the Senate was in session," said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the ACLJ.

"The fact is that this memo, dated two days after the appointments were made, provides a faulty legal analysis and is nothing but a smokescreen to provide cover for actions that are not only troubling, but violate the separation of powers," Sekulow explained.

"This memo changes nothing: President Obama acted in a unconstitutional manner in making these appointments - ignoring the rule of law and nearly a century of precedent," he concluded.