11-08-2018, 03:14 PM
According to attorney George Conway III (Kellyanne Conway's husband), Whitaker's appointment to replace Sessions is unconstitutional and illegal in any case because a principal officer (one who reports directly to the President) must be confirmed by the Senate.
Snip:
The flaw in the appointment of Mr. Whitaker defies one of the explicit checks and balances set out in the Constitution, a provision designed to protect us all against the centralization of government power.
Last year, the Supreme Court examined the question of whether the general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board had been lawfully appointed to his job without Senate confirmation.
The Supreme Court held the appointment invalid on a statutory ground. Justice Clarence Thomas, who Trump calls one of his favorite sitting justices, agreed with the judgment, and further emphasized that even if the statute had allowed the appointment, the Constitution’s Appointments Clause would not have.
The officer in question was a principal officer, he concluded. And the public interest protected by the Appointments Clause was a critical one: The Constitution’s drafters, Justice Thomas argued, “recognized the serious risk for abuse and corruption posed by permitting one person to fill every office in the government.” Which is why, he pointed out, the framers provided for advice and consent of the Senate.
We cannot tolerate such an evasion of the Constitution’s very explicit, textually precise design. Senate confirmation exists for a simple, and good, reason. For the president to install Mr. Whitaker as our chief law enforcement officer is to betray the entire structure of our charter document.
Full piece: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/08/opini...ional.html
Snip:
The flaw in the appointment of Mr. Whitaker defies one of the explicit checks and balances set out in the Constitution, a provision designed to protect us all against the centralization of government power.
Last year, the Supreme Court examined the question of whether the general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board had been lawfully appointed to his job without Senate confirmation.
The Supreme Court held the appointment invalid on a statutory ground. Justice Clarence Thomas, who Trump calls one of his favorite sitting justices, agreed with the judgment, and further emphasized that even if the statute had allowed the appointment, the Constitution’s Appointments Clause would not have.
The officer in question was a principal officer, he concluded. And the public interest protected by the Appointments Clause was a critical one: The Constitution’s drafters, Justice Thomas argued, “recognized the serious risk for abuse and corruption posed by permitting one person to fill every office in the government.” Which is why, he pointed out, the framers provided for advice and consent of the Senate.
We cannot tolerate such an evasion of the Constitution’s very explicit, textually precise design. Senate confirmation exists for a simple, and good, reason. For the president to install Mr. Whitaker as our chief law enforcement officer is to betray the entire structure of our charter document.
Full piece: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/08/opini...ional.html