As expected, on Saturday Obama nominated Loretta Lynch to replace Eric Holder as Attorney General.
I’m not sure how many more times I’ll make this disclosure — but for the second time I’ll note that I’m biased in favor of my law school classmate. I remember Loretta as a very nice person, not something that can be said about some of my classmates.
Loretta’s career, to the extent I’ve followed it, seems pretty straight forward as a prosecutor:
President Clinton first appointed Lynch to be a U.S. Attorney in 1999. She left for private practice in 2001 before being appointed a second time by Obama in 2010.In her years in the post, Lynch’s office in Brooklyn has handled a wide-ranging caseload — cutting-edge cybercrime, high-stakes financial fraud and dramatic Mafia busts straight out of a Martin Scorsese movie.The office also helped convict the masterminds of the thwarted al Qaeda plot to attack the New York subway system.This year, Lynch’s office announced it would indict Rep. Michael Grimm, R-N.Y., on federal fraud, tax evasion and perjury charges. Grimm, who won his re-election bid Tuesday, has pleaded not guilty. Lynch has also prosecuted several Democratic public officials, including State Sen. John L. Sampson, former State Sen. Pedro Espada Jr. and Assemblyman William F. Boyland Jr.
But not so quick:
It was not clear how quickly the Senate would move to consider Ms. Lynch’s current nomination. The White House is deferring to Senate leaders and the Judiciary Committee, but would like her to be confirmed “as quickly as possible,” one official said. That would suggest hearings and a vote during the lame-duck congressional session that begins next week, in which Democrats will still control the Senate.But Republicans, including Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who is in line to become majority leader in January following his party’s takeover in Tuesday’s elections, said Ms. Lynch’s nomination should be considered “in the new Congress through regular order.”
Its hard for me to imagine, at this early point, that Loretta would be blocked, but there is one thing that could throw the nomination off course: How will Lynch respond to Obamas planned executive action on immigration?
Will Lynch, as did Holder, so politicize the office that she becomes the Attorney General not for the United States of America, but for the President?
While the DOJ only controls certain aspects of the immigration law enforcement process, how an AG reacts to unilateral executive action on immigration may be the new litmus test:
Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) are calling on President Barack Obama’s nominee for attorney general to weigh in on the constitutionality of the administration’s plans to unilaterally grant deportation relief to undocumented immigrants.”The Attorney General is the President’s chief law enforcement officer. As such, the nominee must demonstrate full and complete commitment to the law. Loretta Lynch deserves the opportunity to demonstrate those qualities, beginning with a statement whether or not she believes the President’s executive amnesty plans are constitutional and legal,” the conservative duo said in a statement Saturday.
What will Loretta do if Obama thumbs his nose at the immigration laws?
That is a question as to which she has a couple of months to figure out.
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