Red
Well-Known Member
An important lawsuit over the acting AG appointment has been brought on behalf of 3 Democratic senators:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/opinions/wp/2018/11/19/another-critical-lawsuit/
"Protect Democracy, a nonpartisan legal group that has dogged President Trump on constitutional issues and violations of democratic norms for two years, filed yet another suit on Monday against the Trump administration. In conjunction with the Constitutional Accountability Center and on behalf of Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii), Protect Democracy is challenging the appointment of acting attorney general Matthew G. Whitaker. In a news release the group explains:
The Constitution’s Appointments Clause requires that the Senate confirm high-level federal government officials, including the Attorney General, before they exercise the duties of the office. The Framers included this requirement to ensure that senior administration officials receive scrutiny by the American people’s representatives in Congress. The Appointments Clause is also meant to prevent the President, in the words of Alexander Hamilton in Federalist 76, from appointing officers with “no other merit than that of…possessing the necessary insignificance and pliancy to render them the obsequious instruments of his pleasure.” . . .
President Trump’s violation of the Constitution’s Appointments Clause, unilaterally preventing members of the Senate from voting on whether or not to consent to Matthew Whitaker serving as a principal Officer, leaves Senators no choice but to seek a remedy through the courts."
