There has been some speculation that the President’s willingness to make recess appointments, as he did last week, may have been prompted by the Chief Justice’s suggestion that such appointments could be used to fill seats on the National Labor Relations Board. Last Tuesday, in New Process Steel v. NLRB, the Court heard arguments questioning […]
Archive | Executive Branch
President Makes Fifteen Recess Appointments
President Obama made fifteen recess appointments today, including two to the National Labor Relations Board and four to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Embattled Justice Department nominee Dawn Johnsen was not on the list. These were the President’s first recess appointments of his term, and if not confirmed by the Senate, they will be eligible […]
Is the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement Unconstitutional?
By Jonathan H. Adler on March 26, 2010 2:39 pm in Copyright, Executive Branch, International Law, Internet
Harvard’s Jack Goldsmith and Lawrence Lessig have an interesting op-ed in today’s Washington Post arguing that it woudl be constitutionally dubious for President Obama to adopt the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) as an executive agreement. Here’s a taste: The president has no independent constitutional authority over intellectual property or communications policy, and there is no […]
Tales of OLC Opinions Foretold
As the Washington Post is reporting today (on page A16 in the print edition), Office of Legislative Affairs AAG Ron Weich has sent a letter to Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairperson Nydia Velazquez assuring her that the information-gathering and information-sharing provisions of the PATRIOT Act do not override the preexisting confidentiality requirements of the Census Act. […]
Keisler Calls Out Attackers of “Al Qaeda 7”
The New York Times reports that former Bush Administration Assistant Attorney General Peter Keisler has criticized conservative attacks on Obama Administration appointees at the Justice Department who performed pro bono legal work for Guantanamo detainees. Good for him. From Charlie Savage’s report: Peter D. Keisler, who was assistant attorney general for the civil division in […]
Will Dawn Johnsen Finally Get a Vote?
Once again, the Senate Judiciary Committee has approved the nomination of Dawn Johnsen to be Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel. The vote was along party lines, 12-7. BLT reports: Johnsen, a law professor at Indiana University at Bloomington, still has a long way to go if she is to be confirmed. Republicans […]
Reid’s Reversal on Recess Appointments
The Politico reports: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid used to consider recess appointments “an end run around the Senate and the Constitution” — so much so that he kept the chamber open during breaks to prevent President George W. Bush from making any more of them. But with a Democrat in the White House, and […]
Senate Set to Confirm Schroeder
It looks as if the Senate will finally confirm Duke Law School professor Christopher Schroeder to head the Office of Legal Policy in the Department of Justice. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved his nomination for the second time yesterday with substantial Republican support. The Committee vote was 16-3, and both Senators Sessions and Hatch voiced […]
OPR Report “Clears” Yoo and Bybee
Newsweek‘s Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman are reporting that the soon-to-be-released report from the Department of Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility will “clear” former OLC attorneys John Yoo and Jay Bybee of professional misconduct. They report: While the probe is sharply critical of the legal reasoning used to justify waterboarding and other “enhanced” interrogation techniques, […]
Specter to Support Johnsen for OLC
Facing criticism from a primary challenger, Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) announced he is now willing to support confirmation of Dawn Johnsen to the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel. It is still unclear whether her nomination has 60 votes, however, as some other moderate Democrats have been lukewarm about her nomination. As I’ve written before, […]
Comstock and National Security Implications for Detention?
By Kenneth Anderson on January 12, 2010 6:59 pm in Civil Rights, Counter-Terrorism Policy, Executive Branch, Federalism, War on Terror
(Update: Thanks to Ilya for his post above, and Orin for his comment below to this post. Bottom line is that Comstock does not have national security implications.) Could I put a question to the VC staff who are following Comstock? For those of us in the national security area, the whole matter of continued […]
Signing Statements–the Administration’s (Reported) New Take
I am sure that I am not alone in noticing that the White House webpage hasn’t had a new constitutional signing statement posted since last summer. This article by the NY Times’ Charlie Savage Friday sheds new light on why that is. According to the article, the Administration has a new policy on signing statements […]
DoJ’s Defense of Yoo
Dave Hoffman notes that the Justice Department has filed an interesting amicus brief in Padilla v. Yoo arguing against the availabiltiy of a Bivens action in the national security context. Here’s a brief excerpt: The threshold question presented by this case is whether a court should recognize a federal common-law damage action addressing the decisionmaking […]
Private Sector Experience of Cabinet Secretaries (Updated and Purged)
(Update and big deletion and purge, December 2, 3009.) After discussions with the person who created the chart, I’ve decided to take it down and the rest of my commentary as well. He tells me that he has had a chance to re-think the whole thing, and thinks it was a big mistake to try […]
Poll on political bloggers and the media:
This week’s National Journal poll of political bloggers started off by asking them to rank the importance of various media that the political blogger himself uses to stay informed. On both the Right and the Left, “websites/blogs” came in first. However, on the Left, daily print newspapers were second, while on the Right, they were […]