Then head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, he invented a new form of what 19th-early 20th centuries Tammany boss George Washington Plunkett famously called “Honest Graft.” It was simple. Until 1977, Congress had to approve any settlement of a civil suit against the Federal government over $100,000. This preserved the Constitutional requirement that Congress control the government’s purse. But in that year, seeking relief from the burgeoning volume of suits to review, Congress removed the cap, handing the Justice Department a permanent blank check to pay settlements unilaterally, in any amount, out of an account known as the Judgment...
