An excellent primer on the hottest topic of the day (outside of that ball game from…this morning): the Mueller indictments.
Katyal covers the dynamics at play between:> Mueller – admirably independent but easily curtailed if not stopped in his tracks> Rosenstein – with generous power to terminate Mueller based on legal latitude> President Trump – with the constitutional power to terminate Mueller or force Rosenstein to do so> The Congress – who, whether in the majority or minority party, must be informed of said termination
He also covers the difference between constitutional authority and practical, sensical reality (though he uses a universally egregious and idiotic extreme example, PT’s constitutional authority to bomb London now, that everyone disagrees with, to make his point which I think, weakens his narrative.)I thank the just amazing Emily Bazelon for catching and sharing this. I recommend following her as
#iamgrateful and #iamthankful for her feed and how much smarter it makes me.
As for Katyal, remember he is the Professor of National Security Law at Georgetown University. Before that he wrote the laws that define the above, and from his bio: “He has served as Acting Solicitor General of the United States, where he argued several major Supreme Court cases involving a variety of issues, such as his successful defense of the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, his victorious defense of former Attorney General John Ashcroft for alleged abuses in the war on terror, his unanimous victory against 8 states who sued the nation’s leading power plants for contributing to global warming, and a variety of other matters.” What saddens me is some of you will see who wrote it and discount this altogether as opposed to learn from and engage with the POV of a person who was instrumental to drafting the framework that set the stage for all those dynamics above.
Suneet Bhatt 