#26. To: Hank Rearden, nolu chan, Vicomte13, tpaine, Liberator (#20)
Rumor has it the DL is sicker than she admits.
If only... But let's move on to who is topping the list to replace Kennedy.
Per Nice Deb, a Bloomberg reporter says the top choice is Judge Brett Kavanagh.
Judge Brett Kavanaugh is a top contender to succeed Kennedy, per a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. https://t.co/nUxpAlS7ZF— Greg Stohr (@GregStohr) June 27, 2018
If that name sounds somewhat familiar -- last week a district court ruled that the CFPB was unconstitutional.
In doing so, the judge ignored the main opinion of a decision from another jurisdiction and instead adopted the reasoning of the dissent which declared the CFPB was unconstitutional.
The author of that dissent? Judge Brett Kavanagh.
And why did Kavanagh reach that decision? Glad you asked.
Courts have found the law creating the CFPB unconstitutional in that it creates a "Director" running it, who is, in theory, a member of the Executive Branch, but then puts that Director unconstitutionally beyond the reach of the actual Executive, the President, stating that he can only be fired for cause.
One court reviewing this en banc chose to say that part is unconstitutional, but it can be "severed" from the rest of the law, and the law just rewritten by judge's fiat to say the Director can be fired by the president, like any other executive officer, for any reason.
Actually, a clarification: I think the rule is that members of a committee exercising executive power can be made fire-proof (or fireable only for cause), but you can't vest that kind of unfireable power in a singular head, as a Director is.
But one district judge says, "Nah, bro," and finds that that the can-only-be-fired-for-cause provision is part of the heart of the CFPB, and therefore cannot simply be severed/written out of the bill.
As that part is unconstitutional, and cannot be severed from the bill creating the CFPB, the whole law is unconstitutional, and the CFPB is unconstitutional and null and void itself. It strikes the CFPB as a party from the suit (against various defendants, including the NFL), finding it simply has no authority to act at all, in any capacity.
Obviously, a jurist from Trump's list who is that willing to outrage the liberal establishment would make an attractive hard-Right choice for Trump. Fauxcahontas would be in full war paint, ready to scalp him since CFPB is her baby.
