What the Senate Should Do About Acting Appointees

Government Executive: Matthew G. Whitaker’s appointment as acting attorney general may yet be successfully challenged as a violation of the Constitution’s appointments clause, but is more adroitly framed as a violation of the Senate’s intent in enacting the 1988 Presidential Transitions Effectiveness Act.

The transitions act is central to the Whitaker case because it rescued the 1868 Vacancies Act from near-certain repeal, and then led to further changes contained in the 1998 Federal Vacancies Reform Act, which in turn became the basis for the Justice Department’s defense of the president’s decision.

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