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Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Law - More on: IU-Bloomington Law Prof to head Obama's Office of Legal Counsel

Maureen Groppe of the Gannett News Service has this story today on President-elect Obama's nomination of Dawn Johnsen to head the DOJ office of legal counsel.

Joan Biskupic of USA Today has a story headed "Key Justice nominees rooted in academia." It begins:

WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama filled two prominent Justice Department posts Monday, choosing the dean of Harvard Law School to be the first female U.S. solicitor general and an outspoken Bush administration critic to lead the sensitive Office of Legal Counsel.

Elena Kagan, who would be the government's top lawyer before the Supreme Court, worked on domestic policy in the Clinton administration and has won respect from often dueling factions at Harvard since she became dean in 2003. Kagan, 48, is a possible high-court nominee because of her credentials and connections to Obama and his top advisers.

As solicitor general, she would handle cases related to the administration's position on terrorism suspects, health regulations and other controversies. She has never argued before the Supreme Court, and her selection recalls an era when presidents looked to lawyers rooted more in academia than private practice.

Obama also named Indiana University law professor Dawn Johnsen, 47, to be assistant attorney general in charge of the Office of Legal Counsel. The office advises the president on the scope of executive power under the Constitution and federal law and has played an important role on national security legal dilemmas. It was at the center of a controversy in recent years for memos providing the rationale for coercive interrogation of foreign detainees.

Johnsen, who was an acting chief of the office from 1997-98, criticized its support for Bush's policy on terrorism. She argued the "administration's abuses threaten to distort presidential authority and the federal balance of powers for years."

Joe Palazzolo of Legal Times has this report, which includes:
The OLC nomination, in particular, had been highly anticipated. The office's profile was raised during the Bush administration, as it generated controversial legal opinions condoning the use of harsh interrogation methods on suspected terrorists and the warrantless eavesdropping program of the National Security Agency.

Johnsen served as both deputy assistant attorney general and acting chief of the OLC under Clinton. She, too, has been working on the Justice Department transition -- alongside a cadre of other OLC veterans-turned-prominent legal scholars, including Harvard Law professor David Barren, Georgetown Law professor Martin Lederman, and Duke Law professor Christopher Schroeder, and Neil Kinkopf, a professor at Georgia State University College of Law.

Before joining the department, Johnsen was legal director of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League. She has been a frequent critic of the Bush administration. Her most recent publication is entitled, "What's a President to Do? Interpreting the Constitution in the Wake of the Bush Administration's Abuses."

Former OLC colleagues describe Johnsen as a tremendous intellect who often served as the office's compass, even before she took over as acting chief.

"She was always regarded as the conscience of the office, the person who stressed every day the need to get it right," says Wilmer partner Randolph Moss, a former deputy assistant attorney general in the office.

See also: "Faithfully Executing the Laws: Internal Legal Constraints on Executive Power," by Dawn Johnsen.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 6, 2009 08:49 AM
Posted to General Law Related