Obama Makes Four Justice Department Appointments
Include media and new media law practice veterans as well as staff from Clinton years
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/5/2009 1:26:00 PM
President-elect Barack Obama has made four Justice Department appointments, including veterans of media and new media law practice and a bunch of familiar faces from the Clinton years.David Ogden, partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr, who has been heading up the Justice review team for the transition, has been named deputy attorney general. He served in the Justice Department during the Clinton administration and since joining WilmerHale has represented several media clients, including defending a U.S. Media company employee from prosecution by the U.S. and Iraqi governments and successfully injoining a state statute regulating Internet speech.
Elena Kagan, dean of Harvard Law School (Obama's alma mater), will become solicitor general, the office that handles government arguments before the Supreme Court and other federal appeals courts. The office has gotten a lot of media work lately with the appeals of the FCC's indecency enforcement crackdown.
Tom Perrelli, managing partner of Jenner & Block in Washington and co-chair of its entertainment and new media practice, has been named associate attorney general. Like Ogden, he served in the Clinton Justice Department under Attorney General Janet Reno.
Perrelli focuses on copyright and media issues and has represented recording companies in piracy and intellectual property cases, among others.
Dawn Johnsen, a law professor at Indiana University, has been named assistant attorney general for the office of legal counsel. If her past writings are any gauge, she will be a friend to journalists seeking more access to government information. Among her recent publications, cited by the Obama transition team, was: "Interpreting the Constitution in the Wake of the Bush Administration's Abuses."
Johnsen was acting assistant attorney general in charge of the office of legal counsel under President Clinton. She was also with the American Civil Liberties Union.
Wanted: 850 new FBI agents
- Story Highlights
- FBI goes on biggest hiring blitz since 9/11
- Postings on www.fbijobs.gov seek 850 agents, 2,100 support staffers
- Retirements, attrition responsible for openings, FBI says
CNN Justice Producer
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Despite a bleak economic environment featuring wide-ranging layoffs and rising unemployment, the nation's premier law enforcement agency is touting "one of the largest hiring blitzes in our 100-year history."
The FBI posted openings for 850 special agents and more than 2,100 professional support personnel. Officials say it's the largest FBI job posting since immediately after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The FBI's unexpectedly large number of job openings results more from attrition and a wave of retirements than from growing government appropriations, Bureau officials told CNN.
The FBI routinely advertises openings for individuals with critical skills in computer science and language fluency. But John Raucci, assistant director of the FBI's Human Resources Division, says current needs are much more wide-ranging.
"We're also looking for professionals in a wide variety of fields who have a deep desire to help protect our nation from terrorists, spies and others who wish us harm," Raucci said.
The lengthy list of openings includes positions in finance and accounting, security, intelligence analysis, training and education, nursing and counseling, physical surveillance, electrical engineering, physical and social sciences, and auto mechanics.
Procedures for applying and a full listing of available positions are posted on the Web site fbijobs.gov.
"This is a great time to apply for a great job in the FBI," said the bureau's chief spokesman, Richard Kolko.
Officials note at least a few jobs are currently available in every one of the FBI's 56 field offices across the nation.
The FBI lists openings throughout the year, but seldom has anything close to the current number of available positions.
The present job postings expire on January 16, but a new, possibly smaller set of openings will be posted shortly thereafter, the agency said.
| Key Justice nominees rooted in academia |
Elena Kagan, who would be the government's top lawyer before the Supreme Court, worked on domestic policy in the Clinton administration and has won respect from often dueling factions at Harvard since she became dean in 2003. Kagan, 48, is a possible high-court nominee because of her credentials and connections to Obama and his top advisers.
As solicitor general, she would handle cases related to the administration's position on terrorism suspects, health regulations and other controversies. She has never argued before the Supreme Court, and her selection recalls an era when presidents looked to lawyers rooted more in academia than private practice.
Obama also named Indiana University law professor Dawn Johnsen, 47, to be assistant attorney general in charge of the Office of Legal Counsel. The office advises the president on the scope of executive power under the Constitution and federal law and has played an important role on national security legal dilemmas. It was at the center of a controversy in recent years for memos providing the rationale for coercive interrogation of foreign detainees.
Johnsen, who was an acting chief of the office from 1997-98, criticized its support for Bush's policy on terrorism. She argued the "administration's abuses threaten to distort presidential authority and the federal balance of powers for years."
The solicitor general, who argues before the court in gray morning coat, holds one of the most prestigious posts at the Justice Department. It would give Kagan a national platform at a time when many lawyers, including Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, say they hope Obama would choose another woman for the court. Yet the post has political risks.
Former solicitor general Drew Days, appointed by Clinton and now at Yale, says solicitors general often have to take unpopular positions, negotiating government interests and at times irking outside advocates. "One of the things that happens is that you have to say 'no' a lot of times," Days says. "You don't make a lot of friends."
Harvard University law professor Laurence Tribe contends Kagan's experience as dean of "many prima donnas is good preparation for … navigating the difficult waters of the Supreme Court."
Johnsen, now a professor at Indiana University, testified before Congress last year about problems at OLC and recommended 10 principles for the office. Among them: an honest appraisal of the law even if it constrains the president and timely release of opinions that might conflict with federal law.
Sen. Arlen Specter, Pa., the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which would vet Justice nominees, had no comment on Obama's choices.
Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., praised Kagan and Johnsen and two other Justice Department choices: former Clinton aides David Ogden, to be deputy attorney general, and Tom Perrelli, to be associate attorney general.
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