Musical Chairs: Obama Turns Justice Department Into Mini-Law School
President Barack Obama has hit the ground running. Even before President Obama was done flubbing taking the oath of office, the revamped White House website was launched. You can check the WH website, including the new “Briefing Room” blog, for news of notable nominations and appointments.
We’ll also follow personnel news here on Above the Law, at least with respect to leading lawyers (most of them bound for the Department of Justice and the White House Counsel’s office). We’ve covered some notable nominations already. E.g, Eric Holder for attorney general; Elena Kagan for solicitrix general; Cass Sunstein for regulatory czar; and Kathy Ruemmler for PADAG.
A few more names have surfaced since then. Some of them pertain to the Office of Legal Counsel, the most prestigious DOJ component to work for other than the Solicitor General’s office (and arguably more powerful). We once dubbed OLC the Finishing School for the Elect:
If you don’t land a Supreme Court clerkship that immediately follows your feeder judge clerkship, cool your heels at the OLC, then reapply to the Court. Success is practically guaranteed!
As previously reported, with the Senate’s consent, the headmistress of the Finishing School will be Dawn Johnsen (pictured). Professor Johnsen teaches law at Indiana University - Bloomington and served at OLC during the Clinton Administration, as Acting Assistant Attorney General and Deputy Assistant Attorney General, so she is well-prepared for the job. When we spoke at IU almost two years ago, students we met were already speculating that Professor Johnsen — described as a “brilliant” scholar, even if not the clearest or most effective classroom teacher — might someday return to government.
Professor Johnson will be joined by two more academics: Professor David Barron, of Harvard Law School, and Professor Marty Lederman, of Georgetown Law School. To learn more about their appointments, see Politico and Balkinization, respectively. Professor Lederman may be familiar to many of you as an active contributor in the legal blogosphere, having blogged for Balkinization and SCOTUSblog.
Since President Obama is a former legal academic, it should come as no surprise that he’s recruiting so many law profs to join the upper echelons of his administration. The marquee names of Kagan, Sunstein, Johnsen, Barron and Lederman will also be joined by one of the brightest young stars of the legal firmament: Georgetown law professor Neal Katyal (pictured), of Hamdan v. Rumsfeld fame. As reported by the Legal Times (via the WSJ Law Blog), wunderkind Katyal has been tapped to serve as Elena Kagan’s right-hand man, principal deputy solicitor general.
For a comprehensive listing of the top legal eagles in the Obama Administration, see this handy round-up over at the BLT. As you can see, these are big, boldface names — gods and goddesses of our profession. Congratulations and good luck to all of them (not that they’ll need it).
We’ll have more hiring news — including items about less celestial beings, more junior lawyers, people you might actually know — in subsequent posts. If you have info to share, please email us. Thanks.
Update: Add Harvard’s Einer Elhauge to the list of legal academics bound for the Obama Administration. Details via Brian Leiter.
Marty Lederman joins the Office of Legal Counsel [Balkinization]
Katyal Tapped as Principal Deputy in SG’s Office [The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times]
DOJ in Flux [The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times]
Georgetown to Lose Lederman and Katyal to OLC, SG’s Office [WSJ Law Blog]
Another Bush critic to OLC [Politico]
More Departures from Academia to the Obama Administration: Lederman from Georgetown, Barron from Harvard [Leiter’s Law School Reports]
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Comments
1
Solicitrix general. Hot.
Has anybody heard any news re: potential layoffs at Cahill?
So continues the Liberals' attempt to destroy the Constitution.
Cahill is old news:
http://abovethelaw.com/2009/01/nationwide_layoff_watch_cahill.php
There have been lots of White House counsel hires. Lat, go investigate.
Now that Lat is mischaracterizing President Obama's valiant attempt to follow C.J. Roberts's mangled administration of the oath of office, I KNOW that Roberts messed it up on purpose, as part of a vast right-wing conspiracy.
Seriously, you FedSocers are an Al-Qaeda fifth column. Why do you hate our country so?
HLS faculty has been decimated - Kagan, Barron, Sunstein, Elhauge. Also, Meltzer to WHC.
That was a Roberts flub. Surely this was an attempt by the man to take a brother down.
Trevor Morrison ("T. Mo") (formerly of Cornell, now of Columbia; former Ginsberg clerk) to serve as Associate White House Counsel. He cancelled his Columbia Fed Cts class and told us.
Go T. Mo!
This just shows how many of our elite educational institutions are controlled by leftists.
As an IU grad, I just have to say that Johnsen is the most partisan, biased law professor in the entire liberal school.
A good example: Bill Clinton's signing statesments were ok (Johnsen worked in the DOJ when Clinton did them) but George Bush's are unacceptable".
CA to 190!
You're wrong. Echo and the Bunnymen were from the '80's.
You're wrong. Echo and the Bunnymen were from the '80's.
Is it too late to nominate Judge Halverson to the federal bench?
Thank god Harold Koh wasn't named to anything of influence.
Obama looks like a Catfish
This post is really by Elie right?
Lat would know that Cass is going to OMB, which is not part of Justice and is not part of White House Counsel.
What a dumbass ...
As an IU law grad, the only people who thought Johnsen was partisan and biased were the (numerous) Bushie apologists. Those of us who were a little older, with a little more perspective, independants, and libertarians appreciated her refreshing intellectual rigor.
Yes, she's a democrat, that doesn't make her wrong.
I'm just happy that none of these people are card-carrying morons.
11- You got it wrong. The problem is that generally only stupid people from TTT law schools are conservatives.
Ex: Monica Goodling:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monica_Goodling
I mean, REGENT UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL??!!?!
"Gods and goddesses of our profession"?
Asskissing toady.
I had Johnsen. She was pretty opposed to Bush, but she let people with other views talk, within reason (One pudgy jerk got shut down, but he'd pushed it for a long, long time before she stopped letting him talk).
Mostly it was just funny that 24-year-olds kept trying to correct someone like her. Like she's going to say, "You know, I've spent decades hashing out these questions with the brightest minds of my generation, at the highest levels of government, but you just used everyone's class time to quote non-college-graduate Rush Limbaugh, and now you've completely changed my mind..."
It was Roberts, and not Obama, who flubbed it. Check out this ABC News article with relevant transcript and see for yourself:
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=13168
I didn't have Johnsen but I went to all of her talks I could track down and agree that she was definitely opposed to Bush, but at this point it's only the hard core deluded who think he actually did a good job. I just don't think it's right to call her partisan and biased when, while certainly a democrat, she does not embody the negative connotations those terms have taken on.
Who cares who flubbed? It happened. It happens. Nobody's perfect. Grow up.
Obama didn't flub anything! It was Roberts. Read the constitution!
I care. Obama didn't flub anything! It was Roberts. No excuses. The President gave his 20 minute address without a flinch or misstep. Mr. Chief Justice couldn't recite five lines from memory? Give me a break.
Looks like a little bit of love for Georgetown.
Johnsen's not a bad professor, but you're absolutely nuts, 20, if you don't think she's partisan and biased. Johnsen is articulate, consistent in her opinions, and possesses a sharp scholarly mind, but her unabashed disdain for anything remotely Republican severely damages her credibility. She is openly and unapologetically dismissive of any conservative constitutional interpretation. Johnsen believes that there are only two valid political ideologies: liberal and progressive.
At an ACS panel at IU, I once heard her state that she actually agreed with something Bush had done (although I forget exactly what). However, she then rambled for 15 minutes stating that although she and Bush agreed in final result, he was still completely wrong in how he got there and therefore was wrong even though she agreed with him. It was apparent to those of us in attendance that Johnsen just couldn't stand the idea of aligning with Bush on something, and had devised an elaborate argument to explain how they were different, even though they agreed.
Yes, 30. She didn't like Bush. That's not exactly some fringe mainstream opinion, you know.
She disagreed with his use of executive power and the policies he pursued. So did many other people.
And yes,we all knew what her views were. That's not exactly unheard of in a law school classroom setting, but she faced a lot more complaining than a lot of other male proessors who were much less accomplished.
In my time at IU I sat through classes taught by a blatant racist, (Asian dance, anyone?) someone who had written a letter to the newspaper claiming the school favored minorities over white applicants, and a professor who told us all he was writing a paper on, "Why women cannot cut it as legal scholars," as well as assorted other dismissive assholes. Those kinds of views are rather more outside of the mainstream than, "Bush broke the law." And these sexist and racist views regularly made it into the classroom without any comment from the student body. Yet so many people bitched endlessly about Johnsen's interpretations of executive power, even though she went to some pains to allow debate. I can name MANY people in my class who said she didn't deserve to be at the school. Now it's going to be funny to watch these same people fall all over themselves to talk about how she's helped the school's reputation.
You flubbed too. It's RumsFeld.
Strike that. This whole blog is a flub.
Truth be told, Roberts mangled the oath, not Obama.
32 - ?
Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.
Salary "freeze" + Obama tax increases = real live 2009 pay cut
John R. should have given Barak O. a stool and let him sit down at one side of the podium.
35-
At least now we won't have to worry about the constitutional rights of terrorism suspects or the dangers of Big Brother listening in on your calls to grandma.
I like it when Lat does these "inside the Beltway"-type posts. There should be more of them.
Law professors running the country--scary.
39: Better law profs than ignorant political hacks...
This is great. A bunch of liberal loons that live in aa theoretical world running the country. Hopefully the Republicans can figure out what PR means an expose to the American people how nutty these academics are. All they have to do is read some of their writings on the nightly news. By the way, when Obama closes guantanamo bay, I hope he releases the prisoners onto the campus' of these so-called "law" schools.
please people, only refer to IU's law school by its proper name: Mickey Maurer School of Law .
Not Indiana, or Indiana-Bloomington, IU, or IU-B.
Mickey Maurer.
Got it? Awesome.
Those who can do. Those who can't teach.
This is like the second coming of "The Best and the Brightest."
America to 190 yuan.
31, what a shocker! Schools favor minority applicants over white applicants!
If you think that is a racist view, out of the mainstream, have you been living under a rock since 1978?
Does anybody remember the Jimmy Carter disaster? He had a bunch of eggheads running things into the ground. The Ivory Tower approach has been tried and failed many times because its simply not relevant to real work and actually doing things that matter. Talk is cheap and any "brilliant" person can have an idea. Actually doing something tangible is the real test.
To those who beat me to it, good call--Roberts is the one who flubbed the oath. At least Obama waited for him to fix it. Then we'd have to listen to a bunch of old white men's lawsuits claiming Obama wasn't REALLY sworn in, so he shouldn't be President.
Think about it from Obama's perspective...I just made history and this d-bag can't even remember a few words of my oath...all I've been doing for months is memorizing the zillion speeches I'm going to have to give today...?!
Bring on the change. Congrats Obama. And Roberts--I heard FocusFactor is having a buy-one-get-one-free sale...
--FlawLESS
Katyal can run circles around all of you when it comes to teaching AND doing. Seems like he got some tangible results when he got a right-leaning Court to shut down the President's asinine form of "Justice."
46, you missed the part where Roberts corrected himself and said the right version, but Obama followed with the wrong version. So much for that.
But hey, don't let the facts get in the way of your liberal ranting. I'm sure you can blame it on Bush somehow.
ROBERTS: ... that I will execute the office of president to the United States faithfully...
OBAMA: ... that I will execute...
ROBERTS: ... faithfully the office of president of the United States...
OBAMA: ... the office of president of the United States faithfully...
Anybody who has ever taken an oath (like me) knows that the person administering it should proceed slowly and allow the responder a chance to comfortably respond. That's how it was done with Biden just before Roberts raced through it. Also, Roberts didn't seem prepared.
While I don't agree with his politics, Katyal is a great legal mind and was the best professor that I've had (legal or otherwise). Best of luck to him.
maybe the administration will ask the white house staff to write law review articles whenever the tough decisions come up.
I love all of these hypocrite Conservative dolts criticizing the "academics" for not being "doers."
Where were you during the last decade when the Republicans appointed neither academics nor achievers in the private sphere--THEY APPOINTED MORONS!
So your choice is: Conservative moron from REGENT UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL or liberal genius from T-12.
Obama should just tell these fools (ex: 4, 12, 30, 41) that Jesus told him to appoint them because Jesus hates homosexuals and women's rights and they'll come on board.
Discuss.
"31, what a shocker! Schools favor minority applicants over white applicants!
If you think that is a racist view, out of the mainstream, have you been living under a rock since 1978?"
If you think that's valid, it's because you aren't able to identify the underlying assumptions - that minorities must be "favored" (rather than that admissions standards are adjusted to reflect the reality that not everyone grew up in a mostly-white suburb).
Also, if you think that freaking out about the unfairness of black people taking slots that are somehow "supposed" to go to white applicants is a mainstream idea, you live in and among racists.
David Barron is the Bomb. He taught my Property class 1L year, and he is super-smart, a gifted teacher and committed to his students--and he has a great sense of humor to boot. Obama is lucky to get him!
Some of the biggest conservative legal names are former academics: Scalia, Posner, Easterbrook, Bork, John Yoo, Jack Goldsmith.
Appointing law professors to high government office is not just a liberal thing.
She is/was the BATMAN fellow. BATMAN!! Seriously, how do you give that up, even temporarily?
Also, I'm changing my last name--I had no idea that Batman would be anything other than completely crazy as a name.
Yes. All of Bush's appointments were dumb. Obama's will be the best.
You know, I hope you freedom hating liberals grow up one day and realize that dealing with terrorism is a real problem and while it is nice to say we are going to stop Bush's policies it is much harder to do in practice. Especially when those policies are precisely why we have been safe for the last seven years.
Bush made lots of mistakes. But he did keep us safe and that didn't happen on accident.
Please pardon my ignorance, but doesn't Katyal's previous representation of Hamdan create a conflict of interest? How can he represent the interests of the government if he has an ongoing fiduciary relationship with Hamdan?
The President did not "flub" anything. The chief justice did and The President was trying to correct him.
"Especially when those policies are precisely why we have been safe for the last seven years."
You know this because Jack Bauer said so? How the hell would you know that Bush's policies kept us safe. We weren't attacked during the Clinton years either, yet conservatives claim that was just some fluke.
The bottom line is: Bush presided over Sept. 11, Guatanamo Bay, the invasion of Iraq, the "misinformation" that led to that invasion, and Katrina.
Innocent Americans died on his watch. And you expect this to be explained away with, "It could have been worse. Trust me..."
"We weren't attacked during the Clinton Administration either"
I guess the bombings of our embassies in Kenya and Tanzinia, the USS Cole, the Khobar Towers, and the 1993 World Trade Center bombings were figments of my imagination.
And all of these bombings occurred during the Clinton Administrations. Moreover, before you say that many of these weren't attacks on our homeland, check yourself.
The World trade bombing clearly was on our homeland and the bombings of our embassies and the USS Cole constituted an attack on sovereign US territory. And even though the Khobar towers were not sovereign US territory, the attack targeted Americans living abroad.
Since 9/11, there has not been an attack on any piece of sovereign US territory outside of warzones (Iraq and Afghanistan).
As an IU law grad and someone who had Dawn Johnson for a class, I can confirm that her teaching is atrocious and she has the personality of newt.