So you want to get cofirmed by the U.S. Senate for a political appointment?

UPDATE BELOW


Well, if it's for a position in the Justice Department, for gawdsakes, don't be a lawyer!


Seven Senate Democrats joined the Republicans in denying President Obama's choice, Debo Adegbile, to head the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division because he represented a convicted cop killer.  IOW, Attorney Adegbile was practicing US law, so that disqualified him?



"Lawyers hoping for a political appointment in the future, take note: the U.S. Senate is now judging attorneys based on their representation of politically unpopular clients. 

 In a move sure to rattle the legal community, a majority of senators voted Wednesday to block the confirmation of a respected civil rights lawyer to a top Justice Department spot because he helped get a convicted murderer off death row. 

 All Republicans and a handful of Democrats voted to sink Debo Adegbile’s nomination to lead the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. 

The overriding reason for their opposition was that he once represented Mumia Abu-Jamal, a death row inmate convicted 30 years ago of killing a Philadelphia police officer.

Adegbile did not make the decision to take on the case. When he became the head of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund in 2012, the group was already representing Abu-Jamal, and Adegbile continued to do so on a narrow constitutional issue. In other words, he was just doing his job by advocating for his client."

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"Ahead of the vote, members of the Bar of the Supreme Court warned senators against sinking Adegbile’s confirmation based on his representation of Abu-Jamal. 

In a January letter to Leahy and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, they argued that taking such action could send the wrong message to attorneys everywhere. “LDF’s advocacy on behalf of Mr. Abu-Jamal does not disqualify Mr. Adegbile from leading the Civil Rights Division,” reads the letter. 

“To conclude otherwise would send the wrong message to any lawyer who is affiliated, or might be asked to become involved, with a difficult, unpopular case for the purpose of enforcing and preserving important constitutional principles.”


Would the Senate Democrats and Republicans have voted against the confirmation of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Roberts?   In his career, he did pro bono work and defended a mass murderer.

"In 2008, a federal appeals court unanimously held — with two Reagan appointees on the panel — that procedures used during a convicted cop killer named Mumia Abu-Jamal’s death penalty hearing violated the Constitution. 

Specifically, the panel of predominantly Republican judges concluded that the trial judge gave the jury a confusing form that could have been read to require a death sentence unless every single juror agreed to a life sentence. 

The NAACP LDF filed an amicus brief on Abu-Jamal’s behalf. At least one of the Democrats who opposed Adegbile, Sen. Casey, cited his work to overturn this unconstitutional death sentence as the reason for his opposition. 

As MSNBC’s Adam Serwer points out, the Senate was not always so critical of lawyers who help bad people fight potentially unconstitutional death sentences. Indeed, as an attorney in private practice, 

Chief Justice John Roberts “devoted 25 pro bono hours” to representing a mass murderer recently executed in Florida.--Think Progress



This is foolish and incredibly stupid.  The seven Democrats are cowards and should be ashamed of themselves for denying a well-qualified lawyer because he did his job as a lawyer in his limited representation of the defendant.  Work, by the way, that is guaranteed by the US Constitution.  

What would those Democrats and Republicans have done with our second president, John Adams. People apparently do not read history.  John Adams defended the British soldiers who were involved in the Boston Massacre.  He won that case, from which he was famously quoted, "Facts are stubborn things,"   And he was castigated for doing so and terribly unpopular with the colonial patriots at the time.   Adams defended the hated British! Would those Democrats and Republicans have denied John Adams the presidency because he did his job?

There is no reason except cowardice on the part of the Democrats and the Republicans' usual obstruction to deny a lawyer who practices law under our Constitution and who is clearly qualified for the position in the Justice Department.

UPDATE:

James R. Silkenat, president of the American Bar Association (ABA): 

"As the Senate Judiciary Committee prepares to deliberate over the nomination of Debo Adegbile to be Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, I write to address the criticism this nominee has received regarding the legal representation he provided to a death-sentenced prisoner.

A fundamental tenet of our justice system and our Constitution is that anyone who faces loss of liberty has a right to legal counsel. Lawyers have an ethical obligation to uphold that principle and provide zealous representation to people who otherwise would stand alone against the power and resources of the government - even to those accused or convicted of terrible crimes.

The American people understand this obligation, and the corollary principle stated in rule 1.2(b) of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct that "[a] lawyer's representation of a client does not constitute an endorsement of the client's political, economic, social or moral views or activities."

I was alarmed to learn that there is some opposition to Mr. Adegbile's nomination based solely on his efforts to protect the fundamental rights of an unpopular client while working at the Legal Defense Fund.

His work, like the work of ABA members who provide thousands of hours of pro bono legal services every year, is consistent with the finest tradition of this country's legal profession and should be commended, not condemned. [American Bar Association, 1/13/14]" --M.M.