S*******i
发帖数: 2018 | 1 http://www.wsj.com/articles/richard-cordrays-political-stunt-1511752623
Remember the “Seinfeld” episode in which George Costanza refused to leave
even after he was found to be faking a disability? No matter the obstacle,
George strove to occupy his office. The U.S. government now has its own
devious doofus George in the form of Leandra English, who insists that she
deserves to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and is refusing to
leave.
Ms. English is the former chief of staff to Richard Cordray, who resigned as
CFPB director on Friday, but not before naming her as deputy director, a
position that had been vacant for two years. The language of the Dodd-Frank
Act lets the bureau’s deputy director serve as the acting director “in the
absence or unavailability of the Director.”
Ergo, Ms. English claims she is the new acting director, never mind that
President Trump has superseded that claim by invoking the Federal Vacancies
Reform Act to appoint Office of Management and Budget director Mick Mulvaney
as acting director. The law allows the President to temporarily fill a
vacancy at an executive agency with a government official who has been
confirmed by the Senate.
This standoff devolved into a farce worthy of “Seinfeld” on Monday, as Mr.
Mulvaney occupied the director’s office and met with senior employees. But
Ms. English refused to leave and posed for photos with Senate Democrats. We
can only imagine her lineup of interviews on MSNBC and CNN as she portrays
herself as the latest martyr for “the resistance.”
On Sunday she even found her own lawyer to sue the Trump Administration to
keep her job. She had to find her own lawyer—is he Art Vandelay?—because
even the CFPB general counsel concluded that the law is on the Trump
Administration’s side.
As a memo from the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) explains
, 40 other office-specific statutes provide alternatives to the Vacancies
Act. Even when it is not the “exclusive means for filling a vacancy, the [
Vacancies Act] remains an available option” for a President to fill an
opening, says the OLC memo. And “the President’s designation necessarily
controls” unless a statute includes language expressly stating otherwise.
Dodd-Frank does not.
OLC is the government’s main legal authority on executive power and it has
consistently supported this interpretation, including in 2003 with regard to
the acting director of OMB and in 2007 with the acting Attorney General.
This interpretation also adheres to the only federal circuit court opinion
on the subject, which was issued by an Obama appointee on the Ninth Circuit
Court of Appeals last year.
The Ninth Circuit upheld Lafe Solomon’s appointment under the Vacancies Act
as general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, noting that
neither the Vacancies Act nor the National Labor Relations Act “is the
exclusive means of appointing an Acting general counsel” and that “the
President is permitted to elect between these two statutory alternatives.”
In other words, Mr. Trump is acting well within his legal authority, and Ms.
English’s resistance is grounds for dismissal. Dodd-Frank lets the
President fire the director for cause, and resisting a President backed by
the legal arguments of the Justice Department would qualify. A presidential
order supported by Justice is presumed to be legitimate unless it is
overturned by an Article III court. Or perhaps Mr. Mulvaney should avoid a
scene and let Ms. English hang around until she finally gets tired of being
ignored.
***
This fiasco underscores that the CFPB is a rogue agency whose structure is
an affront to the Constitution’s separation of powers. A panel of the D.C.
Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2016 ( PHH Corp. v. CFPB) that the bureau
’s director must be subject to presidential authority. The full circuit,
which former Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid packed with Obama nominees
in 2013, vacated the decision while it considers the case en banc.
It’s likely that Mr. Cordray planned his exit strategy with Ms. English in
the hope of creating some kind of incident on Monday at the CFPB. In the
event Mr. Mulvaney brought a bag full of donuts and comity reined. Mr.
Cordray and Democrats will try to portray all this as some kind of
bureaucratic coup, the better to gin up more name recognition as he runs for
Governor of Ohio next year.
But the Trump Administration is destined to prevail as a matter of law. The
episode shows that hostility to Mr. Trump is causing his opponents to
violate the rule of law themselves. Democrats created an executive-branch
agency insulated from Congressional appropriations and presidential control,
and now they claim to be able to run it like a branch of government unto
itself with a self-sustaining directorship. This is a perversion of
constitutional government that the President is right to resist and the
courts should reject. | a***4
发帖数: 1112 | | a*********a
发帖数: 3656 | 3
leave
to
as
Frank
【在 S*******i 的大作中提到】
: http://www.wsj.com/articles/richard-cordrays-political-stunt-1511752623
: Remember the “Seinfeld” episode in which George Costanza refused to leave
: even after he was found to be faking a disability? No matter the obstacle,
: George strove to occupy his office. The U.S. government now has its own
: devious doofus George in the form of Leandra English, who insists that she
: deserves to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and is refusing to
: leave.
: Ms. English is the former chief of staff to Richard Cordray, who resigned as
: CFPB director on Friday, but not before naming her as deputy director, a
: position that had been vacant for two years. The language of the Dodd-Frank
| S*******i
发帖数: 2018 | 4 哈哈哈
【在 a*********a 的大作中提到】
:
: leave
: to
: as
: Frank
|
|
