Posted by Orin Kerr:
Commentary on Obama White House Counsel's Staff:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_01_25-2009_01_31.shtml#1233342547
A friend and former Bush Administration lawyer writes in with some
interesting thoughts on the initial staffing of the [1]Obama White
House Counsel's Office:
The lawyers are all very accomplished, with pedigrees from elite
universities and distinguished clerkships (Breyer and Stevens seem
to be the biggest feeder judges). By my count, there are 4 Deputy
White House Counsels, 1 Special Counsel, 14 Associate Counsels and
4 Deputy Associate counsels. The total numbers aren't particularly
out of line with past offices except for the George W. Bush White
House Counsel's Office at the start, which had a total of only ten
lawyers - one counsel, one deputy and eight associates. Bush's
Counsel's office was quite different, and much larger, at the end
of his term, once investigations started.
Two things stand out about the new Counsel's Office staff. First,
there are way more deputies than in the past, and the resumes of
the deputies suggest that they will play a major role in policy
development, possibly at the expense of the DOJ's OLC and other
agencies. On the other hand, the Obama Administration has expanded
the policy capacity of the White House staff in general (adding new
policy czars in a number of areas), so perhaps the added number of
legal deputies is simply necessary to address the internal White
House needs of the new czars. Second and more puzzling, the new
Counsel's Office will include a non-lawyer research director
position -- staffed by a former campaign opposition research
specialist. Hopefully journalists will press to find out why this
position has been created. It could simply be a mechanism for rapid
response on judicial nominations, but it could also signal a desire
to run political opposition activity out of the legal shop, which
would be very unfortunate.
References
1.
http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2009/01/obama-taps-22-more-lawyers-for-white-house-counsels-office.html
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