Monday, January 09, 2017
Turning the White House Into a Family Business
Perhaps the Great Orange Bloat was pissed off at the warning fired his way by Barack Obama but Donald Trump has decided to appoint his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as senior White House advisor.
It remains to be seen how Trump will square the appointment with anti-nepotism laws.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
Anyong......No doubt Jared is a "Master Piece".
The federal anti-nepotism statute didn't prevent Bill Clinton from appointing his wife Hillary to chair the Presidential Health Care Reform Task Force, and it won't prevent Trump from appointing Jared Kushner.
Most attempts to limit the president's powers run up against the lack of effective legal enforcement mechanisms. So while US laws make torture and murder illegal, good luck prosecuting GW Bush for ordering the well-documented torture by US military and intelligence agencies under his watch or prosecuting Obama for ordering the murder of US citizens in Yemen.
Any attempt at prosecuting a president under the anti-nepotism statute (5 U.S.C. §3110) will run up against the additional problem of the law's likely unconstitutionality. The US constitution (Art. II, §2, cl. 2) sets virtually no limits on the president's power to select "ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers." It certainly doesn't allow Congress to pass laws purporting to limit who the president may choose as his advisers.
Finally, with a GOP-controlled Congress, I don't expect the nepotism question will even come up. At best Kushner's conflicts of interest may stop his appointment.
Cap
I fear you're right, Cap. I had a look at 3110 and it does seem problematic albeit untested.
Yup. Do we know if Trump has a favourite horse?
Cap
I have hd that imagery myself, Cap. We have a vivid history of how that demagogue met his end.
Looks like the Kushner appointment's a done deal, Mound. According to Reuters, the position doesn't require Senate confirmation, and Trump's lawyers claim it won't violate the anti-nepotism law, likely since Kushner won't be paid.
In other words, there's a clear path to Trump appointing a horse.
Cap
Post a Comment