Controversial Invocations of The USA PATRIOT Act - Dismissal of United States Attorneys

Dismissal of United States Attorneys

Seven United States Attorneys were dismissed by the United States Department of Justice on December 7, 2006. Senior members of the White House and the Department of Justice participated in compiling the list of dismisees. The USA Patriot Act Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005, which was signed into law on March 9, 2006, extinguished the former 120-day term limit of interim United States Attorneys appointed to fill vacated offices. This in effect gave the U.S. Attorney General greater appointing authority than the president, since the interim U.S. attorneys did not need Senate confirmation, and the presidential nominees do. (An interim U.S. attorney's term expires upon the confirmation and swearing in of a presidentially appointed U.S. attorney, if one is put forward.) Critics have claimed the dismissals were either motivated by desire to install attorneys more loyal to the Republican party or as retribution for actions or inactions damaging to the Republican party. At least six of the eight had positive internal Justice Department performance reports.

A bill, S-214, filed in January 2007, to rescind the no-term-limit interim U.S. attorney provision was approved by very large majorities in both the Senate and the House, and was signed into law by the President on June 14, 2007, designated Public Law No: 110-34 and called the Preserving United States Attorney Independence Act of 2007. The new law also specifies that all Attorney General-appointed interim attorneys then in office shall have a term that ends 120 days from the signing of the bill. As of June 14, 2007, the Department of Justice has more than twenty United States attorney positions that are not presidential appointees, which are filled by either acting US attorneys (held by civil service first U.S. attorneys) or interim U.S. attorneys appointed by the Attorney general. (Terms of district court-appointed interim US attorneys were unaffected by the new law—there was at least one: Paula D. Silsby of Maine, appointed in 2001.)