Obama Names 4 for Justice Jobs in Break From Bush Path http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/06/us/politics/06justice.html?_r=1&nl=... WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama reached back to the Clinton administration again Monday to fill four top Justice Department posts with lawyers whose records signal a sharp break from the legal policies of the last eight years.
Mr. Obama said he would nominate David W. Ogden, a Washington lawyer in private practice, as deputy attorney general; Elena Kagan, dean of the Harvard Law School, as solicitor general; Thomas J. Perrelli, a Washington lawyer, as associate attorney general; and Dawn E. Johnsen, an Indiana University law professor, as head of the Office of Legal Counsel. All four held senior legal posts in the Clinton administration. Many of Mr. Obama’s picks in other cabinet departments have taken on a decidedly centrist bent. But at the Justice Department, where controversial Bush administration policies like interrogation tactics and eavesdropping will come under review, the nomination of Eric H. Holder Jr. as attorney general last month and Monday’s selections of four top aides suggested a strong effort to stake out a new direction. For instance, Ms. Johnsen, who would provide legal interpretations to the entire Obama administration, did not try to hide her disdain for recent counterterrorism initiatives in a law review article last year titled: “What’s a President to Do: Interpreting the Constitution in the Wake of the Bush Administration’s Abuses.” She criticized the “unnecessary unilateralism of the Bush years” in programs like the National Security Agency’s program of wiretapping without warrants and the administration’s approval of simulated drowning, or waterboarding, in the questioning of suspected Al Qaeda operatives. After the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Justice Department became the center of controversy over a variety of counterterrorism initiatives, as the Office of Legal Counsel gave its blessing to programs that even some Justice Department officials considered potentially illegal. Tumult at the department reached a high in early 2006 in the backlash over the firings of eight United States attorneys. That led to the resignation of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales in the face of accusations from Democrats that the department had become too politicized. Mr. Obama, in announcing his four new choices on Monday, said, “I have the fullest confidence that they will ensure that the Department of Justice once again fulfills its highest purpose: to uphold the Constitution and protect the American people.” Mr. Obama’s transition team at the Justice Department, led by Mr. Ogden, has examined a variety of Justice Department policies over the last two months to allow for a quick start to the new administration. Among the first tests it will face are the continuing challenges in federal courts over the N.S.A.’s wiretapping program and a pending Supreme Court case over the indefinite detention of legal American residents as “enemy combatants.” On Monday, a federal district judge in San Francisco handed critics of the wiretapping program a surprising victory. The judge, Vaughn R. Walker, reinstated a lawsuit brought by a now-closed Islamic charity, the al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, which says it has evidence its communications with associates in the Middle East were wiretapped without a court order. The judge rejected arguments from the Justice Department that he said “largely rehash” past claims that the lawsuit should be thrown out. In these cases and others, Mr. Obama’s supporters and critics are waiting to see whether his Justice Department will continue the Bush administration’s most controversial legal policies, tinker with them or repudiate them. Mr. Obama’s actions have sometimes provided conflicting clues. In the case of the wiretapping program, Mr. Obama condemned the program last year and threatened a filibuster on the Senate floor to block a bill to protect phone companies that took part in it, but he later voted to support the measure. Mr. Holder, who will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Jan. 15 for his confirmation hearing, has been intensely critical of many of these same policies, calling them “needlessly abusive and unlawful.” A Harvard law professor who is an adviser to Mr. Obama on legal issues, Laurence H. Tribe, predicted in an interview that Ms. Johnsen, as head of the Office of Legal Counsel, and Ms. Kagan, as solicitor general, would be particularly forceful in challenging the broad claims to executive authority asserted by the Bush administration. “I’ll be very surprised if they don’t freshly re-examine some of the positions the previous administration has taken,” said Mr. Tribe, who taught Ms. Kagan at Harvard. While Ms. Kagan and Ms. Johnsen bring strong academic credentials to the Justice Department, Mr. Ogden and Mr. Perrelli are seen as experienced managers who know the intricacies and operations of a department with about 110,000 employees. Mr. Ogden, a partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr, would manage day-to-day operations. Unlike many of the lawyers to hold that post, he has not been a criminal prosecutor, but he was head of the civil division at the end of the Clinton administration and chief of staff to Attorney General Janet Reno. Mr. Perrelli, managing partner of the Washington office of the firm of Jenner & Block, was also a top aide to Ms. Reno. His portfolio, if he is confirmed, would include oversight of civil litigation, antitrust matters, civil rights, taxes and environmental law. Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, called the people who were selected “excellent lawyers with deep experience” who he said would help Mr. Holder “right the ship” at the Justice Department. But Senator Lamar Smith, ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said, “While President-elect Obama’s nominees for senior Justice Department positions seem well qualified, I am concerned about their lack of national security experience in a post-9/11 world.” More Articles in US » A version of this article appeared in print on January 6, 2009, on page A16 of the New York edition. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. 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