Category Archives: Law
Two Headed Bureaucratic Monster
Richard Cordray resigned as Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Friday because he wants to run as a Democrat for governor of Ohio.
On his way out the CFPB door, Cordray appointed his chief of staff, Leandra English, deputy director. That spot had been vacant for two years. But the Deputy Director can serve as acting director in the absence of the director, according to the Dodd Frank Act, so it must have seemed like a good time to fill the vacancy.
Trump, however, countered that move by appointing OMB chief Mick Mulvaney acting director. The Federal Vacancies Reform Act gives him the authority to do so.
Two Headed Bureaucratic Monster
On Monday morning both “acting directors” showed up for work. CFPB’s own general counsel opined that the Vacancies Act trumps Dodd Frank. So she sided with Trump.
Russian Collusion
The Russian Nuclear firm Rosatom bought Canadian mining company Uranium One in 2010. The deal gave Putin control over 20% of the U.S. Uranium supply.
The Hill reported last week that the FBI knew that Russian nuclear officials were involved in racketeering schemes in the U.S. prior to the purchase. The Russians had also directed millions of dollars to the Clinton Foundation and paid Bill Clinton hundreds of thousands in speaking fees.
Robert Mueller was FBI Director when the probe of possible Russian collusion on nukes began in 2009 and James Comey was director when it ended in 2015.
Meanwhile, Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of State Clinton both sat on a committee that approved the Uranium One deal in 2010.
Russian Collusion
Mark Steyn’s reaction: “Fancy that! A racketeering scheme centered on the Clintons! Who’da thunk it?”
Unlike the current “Russia investigation”, where details of dawn raids on Paul Manafort are gaily leaked hither and yon, Mueller and Comey managed to keep the lid on this one for the six-plus years it was active. And happily it doesn’t seem to have obstructed either the Clintons’ or the Russians’ mutually beneficial relationship.
Hillary says this is all a bunch of baloney.
Insurance Companies’ Very Bad Week
Last week President Trump issued an executive order rolling back President Obama’s executive order to subsidize insurance companies. The subsidies reimburse the companies for reducing certain out-of-pocket expenses to policy holders.
The only problem is Congress refused to appropriate money for the subsidies. So Obama whipped out his pen and phone and and started spending the money anyway. And Trump continued that practice. But a federal district court judge says that’s illegal.
Insurance Companies’ Very Bad Week
This week two Republican senators, Tom Cotton and Pat Toomey, introduced a bill to to partially end the individual mandate, no longer requiring some people to buy health insurance.
Yesterday two more Senators, Republican Lamar Alexander and Democrat Patty Murray, made a deal to keep the subsidies alive. Trump said nice things about it last night but withdrew support today.
Time.com tries to explain what’s going here.
McCain Health Care Bill Kills
Senator McCain sided with Jimmy Kimmel in shooting down best bud Lindsey Graham on Friday. He announced he would vote “no” on the Graham Cassidy health care reform.
Two McCain Bill Kills
Those in the know think that pretty much kills the bill. And that would make two health bill kills for McCain.
Damn, should have drawn that on the fuselage.
The Dogma Within
Amy Coney Barrett is a Notre Dame Law professor. She was nominated by President Trump for a seat on the seventh court of appeals.
But first she has to get past Senate Judiciary Committee member Diane Feinstein. The Senator wanted answers about an article Professor Coney Barrett co-authored 20 years ago. It was a meditation on what a Catholic judge might do in a capital punishment case. The authors concluded he/she should recuse.
But the professor came across as a little too Catholic for the senator. Feinstein told her, “I think in your case, professor, when you read your speeches, the conclusion one draws is that the dogma lives loudly within you, and that’s of concern.”
Of course, the professor might have taken that as a compliment.
Man Bites Dogma
But no dogma lives within Senator Durbin. The apparently unorthodox Catholic senator from Illinois demanded to know if Coney Barrett is an “Orthodox” Catholic.
A WSJ opinion piece by theology professor C.C. Pecknold had this to say about the dogma:
Mr. Durbin’s attempt to make such a distinction shows that this affair is about more than Catholicism. It is about an ideology—a politically progressive civil religion—that makes comprehensive claims to which all other religions are expected to conform.
