Like many other components of our constitutional system meant to restrain an overreaching executive, the Senate power of 'advice and consent' on the president's nominees is in a state of disrepair. Early in his administration, Donald Trump strong-armed senators to confirm Cabinet appointees; later, unable to get around the objections of a few Democratic senators, he deployed a complicated legal shell game to install a handful of prosecutors to top positions in blue states across the country. Five courts have now rejected this scheme'creating a significant mess for the Justice Department and calling into question the longevity of Trump's strategy to evade congressional checks and hand prosecutorial power to his loyalists. The two most recent rejections came in quick succession over the past two weeks. On Monday, a panel of appeals-court judges upheld a lower court's ruling that Alina Habba'formerly Trump's personal lawyer'had no authority to lead the New Jersey U.S. Attorney's...
learn more
