Balkinization  

Monday, September 17, 2007

Peter Keisler to Replace Paul Clement As Acting AG

Marty Lederman

The President today announced that Peter Keisler, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division, will be Acting Attorney General until the Senate confirms Judge Mukasey. According to the President, this is in order to allow Paul Clement to concentrate on his duties as Solicitor General.

Full disclosure: Peter is an old friend; indeed, he was one of my note editors back in the mid-1980s. It will come as no surprise that we do not agree on a great range of political and jurisprudential questions -- and, of course, I have taken issue with arguments in several briefs that Peter has signed as head of the Civil Division. But notwithstanding all that, I can vouch that Peter is an attorney of great skill, judgment, integrity and fair-mindedness; I am confident he will make a superlative Acting Attorney General.

Comments:

Not everyone is happy with Peter Keisler:

"Among the strikes against Keisler for Democrats was the fact that he's a co-founder of the conservative Federalist Society. He also "oversaw the Bush administration's lengthy legal fight over the rights of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay."

In March, Keisler, who has been serving as Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division and previously served as Associate Counsel to President Reagan, made an appearance on The Washington Post's front page. Keisler was one of the three political appointees fingered by a career prosecutor who claimed they repeatedly ordered her to take steps that weakened the government's racketeering case against tobacco companies."

Maybe he was just "following orders". But starting the patently dishonest 'Federalist' Society (which starts out by seriously misrepresenting itself in its very name) is hardly a mark of principled jurisprudence in my book, and that baby is half his.

Cheers,
 

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