Christopher Schroeder, the Duke University law professor nominated June 4 to head the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Policy, is slated for a Senate Judiciary Committee vote on Tuesday.

Christopher Schroeder (Duke)

Schroeder’s nomination for the DOJ office that oversees judicial nominations and legal policy has flown a bit under the radar. First, President Obama’s original choice for the job, Mayer Brown partner Mark Gitenstein, withdrew under fire from liberal groups outraged about his advocacy of tort reform on behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Read our story about that flap here. (Gitenstein, a former staffer on the Judiciary Committee for Vice President Joe Biden when he was in the Senate, landed on his feet with a nomination to be ambassador to Romania).

Now, the committee vote on Schroeder will take place inside a media circus: Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court is slated to come before the Senate Judiciary panel the same day.

At the same July 28 business meeting, the panel will also consider the nominations  of Thomas McLellan to be deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy; Alejandro Mayorkas to be director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services at the Department of Homeland Security; and Cranston J. Mitchell to be a commissioner of the U.S. Parole Commission.

Schroeder’s nomination is uncontroversial, but it appears unlikely he’ll come up for a confirmation vote before the Senate recesses for its August break. Other DOJ nominees who’ve already passed through the committee are still waiting for a Senate confirmation vote, including Dawn Johnsen to head the Office of Legal Counsel; Tom Perez to head the Civil Rights Division, and Mary L. Smith to head the Tax Division. Read our previous coverage here.

Controversy is swirling around two Bush-era officials in an obscure Justice Department office, The Washington Post reported today.

The U.S. Parole Commission — which handles people convicted under D.C. law and under the old federal system — is under scrutiny for  then-Commissioner Deborah Spagnoli’s decision to contact then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales about an inmate set to be released, and the apparent efforts of outgoing Chairman Edward F. Reilly Jr. to secure funds to improve a Missouri highway through his hometown.

Spagnoli, who resigned in 2007, lobbied Justice Department members to intercede in the case of Ver0nza Bowers Jr., who was convicted in the 1973 murder of a San Francisco park ranger, The Post said. Bowers has maintained his innocence, and in 2005, he was set to be released.

The then-commissioner, who has called Bowers “an unrepentant murderer,” tried to contact the infamous Office of Legal Counsel lawyer Steven G. Bradbury and Gonzales Chief of Staff D. Kyle Sampson about the case, The Post said.

In an unprecedented move, Gonzales asked the Parole Commission to “clarify” its “initial decision,” according to The Post. The commission then voted to keep Bowers behind bars, The Post said. Following the vote, she wrote an e-mail to a DOJ official that simply said: “victory,” according to The Post.

“I never campaigned to deny parole to Veronza Bowers,” she said in a statement to The Post. “I do not believe there was any impropriety in reviewing the case and the applicable law and providing a summary to the Attorney General who has a statutory right to appeal certain parole commission decisions.”

As for Reilly, he is being investigated by the inspector general’s office for his repeated attempts to have government officials improve Missouri Highway 92, which runs through his hometown of Leavenworth, Kan. This came to light through the work of Spagnoli’s husband, D.C. Assistant U.S. Attorney, William Woodruff, to made letters surrounding the lobbying effort public.

“I never really thought about it until you brought it to my attention,” Reilly told The Post. “I’m very sorry it occurred.”

Spagnoli maintained to The Post that she’s not involved with what her husband is doing, but has complained about Reilly turning the commission into his “personal little fiefdom,” according to The Post.

And another twist: there was someone who visited Reilly’s office on a Sunday in 2006 and copied 68 pages of his personal papers, The Post said. Of the four people who visited the office that day, one was Spagnoli. She declined to comment to The Post on her weekend visit.