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Obama team faces major task in judiciary overhaul
As a transition team for the Obama administration begins work on a Justice Department overhaul, the key question is where to begin.
- Agencies
- Published: 23:21 November 14, 2008
Washington: As a transition team for the Obama administration begins work on a Justice Department overhaul, the key question is where to begin.
Political considerations affected every crevice of the department during the Bush years, from the summer intern hiring programme to the dispensing of legal advice about detainee interrogations, according to reports by the inspector general and testimony from bipartisan former DOJ officials at congressional hearings.
Although retired federal judge Michael B. Mukasey, who took charge of the department in the winter, has drawn praise for limiting contacts between White House officials and prosecutors, and for firmly rejecting the role of politics in law enforcement, restoring public confidence in the department's law enforcement actions will be central, lawmakers and former government officials say.
"The infusion of politics into the Justice Department and an abdication of responsibility by its leaders have dealt a severe blow," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, and Sen. Arlen Specter, the panel's ranking Republican, wrote in an opinion piece last month. "Great damage has been done to the credibility and effectiveness of the Justice Department."
Topping the list of concerns is the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), a once-obscure operation whose advice guides some of the government's most sensitive and controversial policies, from domestic wiretapping to the appropriateness of handing out public funding to religious groups. Many of the OLC's memos on interrogation and warrantless eavesdropping remain secret, even though lawmakers have clamoured for their release.
Democrats say they expect to find fresh surprises when they open the legal vault.
Officials at interest groups, including the Centre for American Progress and People for the American Way, have called on President-elect Barack Obama to devote significant attention to the legal office.
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