Senate Committee Set to Take Up Nomination of Dawn Johnsen

[babylonsister]

Senate Committee Set to Take Up Nomination of Dawn Johnsen

Wednesday 03 February 2010

by: Kyle Berlin, t r u t h o u t | Report



The Senate Judiciary Committee will "most likely" vote Thursday on whether to resend Dawn Johnsen, the nominee to head the Office of Legal Counsel, to the Senate floor, according to a senior Senate staffer.

President Obama initially nominated Johnsen last February to head the OLC, which gained notoriety under President George W. Bush for generating the "torture memos," in which Bush administration lawyers developed legal arguments to circumvent international and domestic law against the mistreatment and torture of detainees.

Johnsen made it through committee on a party line vote last March, but her nomination stalled on the Senate floor. Following Senate procedure, it was sent back to the president on Christmas Eve. She currently works as a law professor at Indiana University-Bloomington and is teaching this semester.

Republican senators and a few Democrats, including Arlen Specter (D-Pennsylvania) and Ben Nelson (D-Nebraska), raised questions about Johnsen's positions on abortion and national security. Specter has since agreed to support Johnsen's nomination under public pressure from a Democratic challenger for his seat, Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pennsylvania).

With the support of one Republican, Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Indiana) - who "still plans to vote for her," according to Lugar's press secretary Andy Fisher - Johnsen looked like a lock for the nomination. But with the election of Scott Brown (R-Massachusetts), she appears to have lost the crucial vote needed to overcome a Republican filibuster.

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http://www.truthout.org/senate-committee-set-take-up-nomination-dawn-johnsen56617