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Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Law - Dawn Johnsen: Regrets, she has a few, but then again ...
Continuing a long list of ILB entries on Dawn Johnsen, the last several of which were labeled "Dawn Johnsen: Let Me Be Clear, I Have No ‘Regrets’ ", Prof. Johnsen, in a story ($$) in the Nov. 20th Bloomington Herald-Times by Mike Leonard, headed "Dawn Johnsen tells law school audience she has no regrets about failed nomination," allows that:
In the final analysis, Dawn Johnsen says she wishes the Obama administration would have called for a full Senate vote on her nomination to head the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel.And absent that happening, the professor in Indiana University’s Maurer School of Law says a temporary recess appointment when Congress was not in session would have been fine with her.
“I would have welcomed a recess appointment,” Johnsen said following her first public address at the law school in two years. “I believe it would be in our nation’s best interest for the president to be able to use that authority in the future when there is unwarranted obstruction by senators who are trying to not even have a vote on a nominee. I do regret that wasn’t a possibility for me, because I would have accepted that, and I’m hopeful in the coming years the president will use his recess appointment power.” * * *
The longtime Bloomington resident said both in her public remarks and to reporters after her address that her 16 months in “limbo” between her nomination and withdrawal were difficult both personally and as a citizen accustomed to weighing in and participating in discussions of the issues of the day. She decried the “silence and inaction forced upon nominees” who are not allowed to comment, and said the net effect is to muzzle people who by virtue of their nominations alone are leaders in their given areas.
“I think it’s an underappreciated cost of this system breakdown. All those judicial nominees out there for months and months. They cannot do their work and speak out on issues. This is a group of people who ordinarily are very politically active and key players in making policy and setting direction, and this is a way for elected officials who are known to be obstructionists to stop these people for long periods of time to be able to participate.”
Still, the IU professor implored the law students in the audience to not let her long, arduous and, ultimately, failed nomination to deter them from public service. She said that while she appreciated a New York Times editorial that said she should have been confirmed, she disagreed strongly with the suggestion that her treatment could have a chilling effect on others who might either refuse to go through the process or live a life of silence for fear that being outspoken could derail careers that intersect with politics.
She said she was proud of her advocacy for reproductive rights, for the rule of law and against torture as a legitimate method of interrogation.
“It has not hurt me,” Johnsen said. “My message could not be more simple or more clear. I have no regrets.”
Posted by Marcia Oddi on November 24, 2010 09:02 AM
Posted to General Law Related