Dawn Johnsen

The Senate confirmation process for President Obama's nominations continues to drag, as noted in a letter to The Washington Post by Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR). In his letter, Henderson lauded a recent column by Ruth Marcus lambasting the Senate for moving slowly on several of the administration's nominations, but noted that the columnist failed to mention the long-stalled nomination of Indiana University law school professor and former ACS Board member Dawn Johnsen to head the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). 

Henderson writes:

Ms. Johnsen is eminently qualified to lead this office, which plays a key role in protecting our constitutional rights. She is a distinguished law professor who in the 1990s served five years in the Office of Legal Counsel, including a stint as acting director. After it became known that the office, during the Bush administration, approved illegal wiretapping of U.S. citizens and the torture of detainees, Ms. Jonhnsen spearheaded an effort by legal experts to develop guidelines to ensure that the office fulfills its proper role. She is supported by an impressive and bipartisan group of former administration officials and has the votes to be easily confirmed, if only Republicans would let the vote take place.

This is obstruction, pure and simple. And, as Ms. Marcus said, it's no way to run government.

There was some movement in the Senate yesterday on President Obama's nominations, with Nashville attorney Jane Branstetter Stranch, a nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, facing few challenging questions (and even fewer senators) at a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Nonetheless, the slow pace of President Obama's judicial nominations and Senate confirmations continues to be a source of attention in the media and criticism from both the left and the right. To date, only three of the president's judicial nominees have been confirmed, including Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

 

The Justice Department announced this week that Georgia State University College of Law professor Neil Kinkopf is joining the Justice Department's Office of Legal Policy (OLP) as OLP's counselor to the assistant attorney general. Kinkopf, the faculty advisor to the ACS chapter at Georgia State, has been a regular ACS participant.

At the Justice Department, Kinkopf joins David Barron, former member of the board of advisors at the Harvard Law and Policy Review (the official journal of ACS,) and Martin Lederman, a regular ACS participant. Barron remains the de facto head of the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) pending Senate confirmation of former ACS board member Dawn Johnsen to lead the office.

Also at the Justice Department, are former ACS board member Spencer Overton and Chris Schroeder, co-author of ACS's Keeping Faith with the Constitution -- both of whom are at the OLP. And, of course, former ACS board member Eric Holder is serving as Attorney General.