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Saturday, March 27, 2010

Law - Obama makes nine recess appointments, but not Dawn Johnsen

Here is the story by David Ingram of the Blog of Legal Times, which includes biographical material on all nine appointees. From the story:

President Barack Obama is using his recess appointment power to install 15 stalled nominees, including labor lawyer Craig Becker and Georgetown University law professor Chai Feldblum.

The recess appointment power, used regularly in the administrations of George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, side-steps several difficult confirmation battles and allows the 15 nominees to serve through the end of 2011. Becker, picked for the National Labor Relations Board, and Feldblum, for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, have faced especially heated opposition.

Also among the 15 nominees are Jacqueline Berrien, associate director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, for chair of the EEOC; Winston & Strawn partner Eric Hirschhorn for under secretary of commerce for export administration; Seyfarth Shaw of counsel Victoria Lipnic for the EEOC; P. David Lopez, an EEOC supervisory trial attorney, for EEOC general counsel; Buffalo, N.Y., labor lawyer Mark Pearce for the NLRB; and former Mayer Brown partner Michael Punke for deputy trade representative.

Not included in the list are several nominees for the U.S. Department of Justice, including Dawn Johnsen, a law professor at Indiana University at Bloomington, for the Office of Legal Counsel.

In a news release Saturday, Obama said he could not allow "partisan politics to stand in the way of the basic functioning of government.

Another Hoosier, Jill Long Thompson, was appointed to the Farm Credit Administration Board

Posted by Marcia Oddi on March 27, 2010 08:09 PM
Posted to General Law Related