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.
