Posted on 05/14/2018 10:28:27 AM PDT by ethom
Some of the actions taken by Special Counsel Robert Mueller are unconstitutional because the Russia probe stepped over the legal line, claims one of the nation’s most prominent legal scholars.
“At issue is the Constitution’s Appointments Clause, which provides that ‘principal officers’ must be appointed by the president with the Senate’s consent,” Steven G. Calabresi, who teaches out of Northwestern School of Law wrote. According to Calabresi, Mueller is acting like a principal officer. The special counsel, after all, is “investigating a large number of people” and has charged defendants for alleged crimes unrelated to Russian collusion (eg. Paul Manafort). Remember, the Special Counsel was appointed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein after Attorney Jeff Session recused from the Moscow probe.
“That’s too much power for an inferior officer to have,” Calabresi wrote. “Only a principal officer, such as a U.S. attorney, can behave the way Mr. Mueller is behaving. Mr. Mueller is much more powerful today than any of the 96 U.S. attorneys. He is behaving like a principal officer.”
He points to the majority decision in the 7-1 ruling in the 1988 U.S. Supreme Court case Morrison v. Olson. Justices upheld the independent counsel provisions of the Ethics in Government Act of 1978. For Calabresi, the important part are the limits that the ruling set for an “inferior officer” like what Mueller is supposed to be.
From the op-ed:
[Chief Justice William] Rehnquist wrote that independent counsel Alexia Morrison qualified as an “inferior officer,” not subject to the appointment process, because her office was “limited in jurisdiction” to “certain federal officials suspected of certain serious federal crimes.”
So Morrison’s appointment was fine under the Constitution, but for Calabresi, Mueller’s actions sit outside these bounds because they go beyond the original mandate.
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It sure is. Luckily for him we haven’t really gone by the constitution for a few decades now.
Clinton and Obama trashed this country with help from an idiot GW BUSH.
The U.S. Department of Justice didn't even exist until after the Civil War.
Wouldn't the "principal appointments" in the DOJ be defined under the statutes creating those various DOJ posts in the first place?
You got that right.
For a great website go to http://www.whatfinger.com
Mueller’s investigation is without legal basis because there’s no underlying crime to warrant such investigation.
The flimsy ‘dossier’ contained no evidence of a crime, yet the FISA court accepted it as the basis upon which to grant the FBI permission to spy on the Trump campaign.
This whole sordid business is built of lies, and needs to end.
It’s OK because he’s working for the Deep State.
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