Republican senators left the Supreme Court arguments today confident that they would prevail in the constitutional showdown over the president’s power to make recess appointments.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), on the front steps of the court, said he believed the justices would deliver a lopsided win on at least one of the three key questions at issue in NLRB v. Noel Canning. That would let stand appeals court rulings that President Barack Obama overstepped his authority when he sidestepped the Senate’s advise-and-consent power in January 2012.