Thursday, February 13, 2020
Time to Move Dept of Justice out of the Executive Branch
Recent events have made it clear that the Attorney General and the Department of Justice should not be part of the executive branch. They must be non-partisan. People smarter than I am should come up with a plan, but I suggest they be moved to the judiciary.
The Attorney General could be chosen by a super majority of Supreme Court Justices (6 or more) from a list of candidates. One candidate each from the president, the House and the Senate. Congress would need a super majority vote (>60%) to choose its candidate. If the House or Senate cannot agree on a candidate, the ABA could then suggest a candidate.
The Attorney General would be appointed for an 8 year term that starts in the year after the presidential inauguration. As the end of the term nears, the nomination process would begin again. The current attorney general could be re-nominated.
The Justices could, with a super majority vote, remove the current Attorney General. The process would then start to choose a new Attorney General to serve the remainder of the term.
The Chief Justice, working with the Attorney General, would submit a budget each year. The budget should have protections to prevent appropriations being used to politically influence Department of Justice decisions.
We would also need a plan to fill and remove Justice Department positions that are now political appointees. It is probably too much to expect the Supreme Court to oversee an operation of this size. But I'm sure we can figure this out.
The idea is to remove politics from the administration of justice. While this is probably idealistic, we should try.
While we are at it, lets make it law that a super majority of the Senate is required to confirm a Supreme Court justice.
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