The appointment of Talley shows the greatest danger of this Administration. Appointing an inexperienced, unqualified person with a major conflict of interests who's main qualification appears to be a favor to Sen. Luther Strange. Long after the Trump Admin. is gone these people will still be in their judgeships.
I am sure there will be whining about Democrats blocking his appointments, but Trump's level of incompetence permeates everywhere, including people management skills you would think would be a strength of a "business leader." Maybe if he spent a little less time tweeting and going to the golf course and more time running the country?
Again, you would think a "business leader" like Trump would at least be able to handle hirings and firings... but no, his incompetence even here is without comparison... Consumer agency official sues Trump administration over its leadership http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...trump-administration-over-its-leadership.html
What a frickin mess... embarrassing that Trump's incompetence leading his administration has led to something like this...
If your biggest accomplishments are defending companies against allegations of discrimination, what department will our Dipshit-in-Chief nominate you for? Well, duh, the top civil rights job in the Justice Department... Trump Pick for Top Civil Rights Enforcer Has Made a Career of Fighting Discrimination Claims – Mother Jones In his bio on the website of the influential law firm Jones Day, Eric Dreiband, who is awaiting confirmation to the top civil rights job in the Justice Department, lists some of the biggest cases he’s worked. Dreiband’s specialty is defending companies accused of discrimination, and the list includes high-profile clients such as tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds and CVS Pharmacy. At the bottom of the list is a case that’s gotten little attention, but one that maybe best highlights his success in fighting discrimination complaints—and why civil rights groups see him as the wrong person to lead the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. From 2003 to 2005, Dreiband served as general counsel of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), a government agency with the power to prosecute discrimination in employment. Dreiband has characterized his record at the EEOC as one of “aggressive enforcement,” where he oversaw hundreds of cases and forced companies to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. After leaving government, Dreiband cashed in on his tenure at the EEOC to start working on behalf of companies fighting off discrimination suits brought by his former employer. He defended big corporations against the EEOC, including CVS Pharmacy in a case over its severance agreements and Bloomberg in a pregnancy discrimination case. Most famously, Dreiband was part of a team that defended the retailer Abercrombie & Fitch for refusing to hire a Muslim teen whose headscarf violated the company’s “look” policy. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, where Abercrombie lost. Dreiband also took his expertise to Congress on several occasions, where he urged reforms that would reduce the EEOC’s authority. In 2010, Dreiband was approached by another potential client facing a suit from the EEOC. This time, it wasn’t a private company, but the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, a little-known government agency that issues reports on religious discrimination abroad and makes policy recommendations based on its findings. Since its inception in 1998, critics had alleged that the commission was concerned mainly with anti-Christian discrimination and failed to address discrimination against other religious groups. Leonard Leo, a conservative Catholic, joined the commission in 2007 and became its chairman in 2009. Known as the most important figure in the conservative legal world, Leo is now executive vice president of the Federalist Society, which recommends judicial nominees to Republican presidents. Business Insider recently named him “the most powerful recruiter in the world” for his role in picking conservative Supreme Court justices during the past two Republican administrations. In the spring of 2009, the commission hired a young woman named Safiya Ghori-Ahmad as a staff analyst for the South Asia region. Born in Arkansas, Ghori-Ahmad came to the job with a law degree, a master’s degree, fluency in Hindi and Urdu, and enthusiastic reviews from those who had interviewed her. But after accepting the job, it became clear that her Muslim faith, Indian heritage, and past employment at the Muslim Public Affairs Council, a group that advocates on behalf of American Muslims, were a problem for some of the commissioners. According to a complaint Ghori-Ahmad filed in federal court three years later, several commissioners objected to her hiring. In an internal email, the complaint alleges, commissioner Nina Shea wrote that hiring a Muslim to analyze religious freedom in Pakistan would be like “hiring an IRA activist to research the UK twenty years ago.” Shea denied writing the email. Ultimately, the commission revoked Ghori-Ahmad’s job offer four weeks after extending it. At the time, according to the complaint, the commission’s policy director admitted to Ghori-Ahmad that the decision was due to her Muslim faith. But after an outcry from the commission’s staff, the commissioners voted to give her a three-month temporary contract, during which time she was forbidden to work on matters related to Pakistan. During her temporary stint, Ghori-Ahmad filed a complaint with the EEOC, alleging that the commission had rescinded her employment offer due to religious discrimination. At the end of her temporary contract, the professional staff wrote a joint letter to the commissioners recommending that Ghori-Ahmad once again be offered a staff position. The commissioners declined to hire her. One researcher resigned in protest of Ghori-Ahmad’s treatment. Enter Dreiband. The commission had been represented in the case by the General Services Administration, a federal agency, but in July 2010, Leo announced to the commissioners that Dreiband had been hired to take over, according to a former commissioner who asked not to be named. Dreiband sought to get the case dismissed, arguing that the commission was not subject to the workplace protections in the 1964 Civil Rights Act. In other words, a commission established to defend religious liberty had the right to discriminate based on religion. The theory behind his argument was creative, if not exactly baseless. The commission was not an executive agency, he argued. But because Congress had failed to specifically mention that the commission would be subject to congressional rules, it was free from the civil rights laws that govern entities in the legislative branch. In other words, it wasn’t really subject to anyone’s rules. This is why civil rights groups see him as the wrong person to lead the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “I think it was a very novel argument at the time to say, ‘We’re neither, and therefore she has no rights,'” says a former Justice Department official who asked not to be identified. “It just kind of belies common sense.” But Dreiband was effective. A few weeks later, the administrative judge dismissed the case. Dreiband had won the battle for his client, but he may have cost it the war. Ghori-Ahmad’s case drew attention on Capitol Hill at the same time that the commission was awaiting reauthorization. When Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) learned about the case, he successfully pushed through reforms that would bring the commission under the nation’s civil rights laws. Moreover, he made sure that the laws applied retroactively, allowing Ghori-Ahmad’s case to go forward. Durbin’s reforms also targeted the commissioners who had fired her by imposing term limits and making them retroactive as well—effectively firing Leo and the rest of the commissioners. In June 2012, Ghori-Ahmad filed a complaint against the commission in federal court, alleging religious discrimination. This time, the Justice Department represented the commission. The case drew attention to the commission, and not in a good way, as a religious freedom commission accused of religious discrimination. Christianity Today described it as “one of the most ironic religious freedom lawsuits ever filed.” In late 2014, the commission agreed to a settlement, which people with knowledge of it have described as very favorable to Ghori-Ahmad. President Donald Trump nominated Dreiband to lead the Civil Rights Division in June. Following Dreiband’s confirmation hearing in September, Durbin submitted several written questions to Dreiband about the case. “Can you explain how you came to represent the Commission, why you decided to take this case, and the rationale for the Commission’s defense?” he asked. “Why did the Commission, a governmental entity, retain private counsel in this case?” Neither Dreiband nor Leo responded to requests for comment. Dreiband responded by reiterating that the commission hadn’t been covered by civil rights laws. He answered none of the other questions. ++ You can't make this **** up... Other links: https://www.theguardian.com/comment...s-division-legacy-eric-dreiband-unfit-to-lead https://civilrights.org/oppose-confirmation-eric-dreiband/
A list of the agencies opposing Dreiband's selection... The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights 9to5, National Association of Working Women Advancement Project AFSCME Alliance for Justice American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee Arizona Employment Lawyers Association Asian Americans Advancing Justice Autistic Self Advocacy Network Bend the Arc Jewish Action Bend the Arc Southern California Center for American Progress Center for Popular Democracy Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights Connecticut Employment Lawyers Association Disability Policy Consortium of Massachusetts Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund Equal Justice Society Equal Rights Advocates Equality California Fair Elections Legal Network Family Equality Council Farmworker Justice Florida NELA Georgia Chapter of the National Employment Lawyers Association GLSEN Institute for Science and Human Values International Association of Official Human Rights Agencies Lambda Legal LatinoJustice PRLDEF League of United Latin American Citizens Matthew Shepard Foundation Metropolitan Washington Employment Lawyers Association MPower Change NAACP NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. NARAL Pro-Choice America National Association of Human Rights Workers National Bar Association National Black Justice Coalition National Center for Lesbian Rights National Center for Transgender Equality National Council of Jewish Women National Domestic Workers Alliance National Education Association National Employment Law Project National Employment Lawyers Association National Fair Housing Alliance National Health Law Program National Hispanic Media Coalition National Immigrant Justice Center National Immigration Law Center National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund The National Network for Arab American Communities National Organization for Women National Partnership for Women & Families National Urban League NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice OCA – Asian Pacific American Advocates One Colorado OneAmerica People For the American Way PFLAG National PICO California Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) PolicyLink Presbyterian Feminist Agenda Network Pride at Work Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Southern Poverty Law Center Texas Employment Lawyers Association Transformative Justice Coalition UnidosUS (formerly NCLR) Voices for Progress The Voter Participation Center Voting Rights Forward Wisconsin Employment Lawyers Association (WELA) World Without Genocide at Mitchell Hamline School of Law YWCA USA https://civilrights.org/oppose-confirmation-eric-dreiband/
White House Plans Tillerson Ouster From State Dept., to Be Replaced by Pompeo, Within Weeks https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/11/...o-trump.html?referer=https://news.google.com/
Par for the course. And the story is interesting. But, I don't like the angle of blaming lawyers for representing the interests of their clients. It is society's purpose for lawyers -- to make abhorrent arguments to defend terrible people. Though I think you can fault him for adopting a legal strategy that invites so much political blowback. Maybe the guy isn't smart enough for the role.
It'd get Tom Cotton out of the Senate, which would be nice. I don't see what credentials he has to justify running the CIA, but at least he'd be out of the Senate.
This would be funny if it wasn't so scary... Trump Finds Loopholes in Chief of Staff’s New Regime https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-finds-loopholes-in-chief-of-staffs-new-regime-1512302400
In these cases though it isn't matter of a lawyer being compelled by legal ethics to defend terrible people. These aren't legal aid cases and Dreiband certainly had a big say in what clients he took on. At the sametime these clients certainly saw Dreiband as someone with an established history and maybe even a zeal in taking on discrimination cases.
Do they all vote as a bloc? Correct my memory, but I thought these financial reforms were so that the media could label Occupy as fringe homeless losers instead of a legit movement that was this close to rioting against the 0.1 percent?
Another Trump appointee... Trump pick for top UN position praised Milo Yiannopoulos, shared inflammatory memes on Facebook http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/04/polit...wCNN120417kfile-murray-un-position0524PMStory
