About Whitaker's appointment

[Bob78164]

I'm starting to see some prominent commentary to the effect that appointing Whitaker as Acting Attorney General is unconstitutional. It's actually an open question. I'm pretty sure Justice Thomas, for one, would agree with the critics. I don't know about the rest of the Court.

Here's the issue: Whitaker was Sessions's chief of staff. Under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, that may (subject to a caveat I'll discuss below) make him eligible to be appointed. But there is a body of thought that says anyone serving as acting head of a government department must, under the Appointments Clause of the Constitution, be a person who has been confirmed by the Senate. My bottom line here is that there's a real argument to be made here, but I certainly wouldn't say Donny is out of line for appointing someone that Congress has said he can appoint.

Now that caveat. There seems to be a fairly clear conflict between two different statutes. In addition to the general rule stated by the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, there's a separate statute that establishes the order of succession for the Department of Justice. I understand that it's not at all clear which one of those statutes should prevail. Once again, this is an issue where I wouldn't say Donny is out of line for going with the statute he prefers, even if the courts end up disagreeing. --Bob

[Bob Juch]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/08/us/p ... erior.html

WASHINGTON — The acting attorney general, Matthew G. Whitaker, once espoused the view that the courts “are supposed to be the inferior branch” and criticized the Supreme Court’s power to review legislative and executive acts and declare them unconstitutional, the lifeblood of its existence as a coequal branch of government.

[silverscreenselect]

Looks like Trump Jr. may be packing his toothbrush soon:

Trump’s move against Sessions today arrives at a moment when Trump allies are increasingly concerned about Donald Trump Jr.’s legal exposure. In recent days, according to three sources, Don Jr. has been telling friends he is worried about being indicted as early as this week. One person close to Don Jr. speculated that Mueller could indict him for making false statements to Congress and the F.B.I. about whether he had told his father about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russians to gather “dirt” on Hillary Clinton. This source had heard that the case could revolve around Trump’s former deputy campaign chairman, Rick Gates, who’s cooperating with Mueller and who was deeply involved in the campaign at the time of the meeting. Trump, this person continued, is “very upset” about the risks Don Jr. faces. “The president is very depressed,” this person said.

I don't know just how crowded those holding cells are, but Trump Jr. might be bunkmates with Roger Stone.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/11 ... a-bad-mood