Obama Nominates Kathy Keneally as DOJ Tax AAG (9/10/11)

Obama has nominated Kathy Kenalley as DOJ Tax AAG.  See the Main Justice article here.  Kathy is well qualified, as most of her colleaques know.  I think that most of the readers of this blog will recognize her name and a substantial subset of those readers will know her.  Finally, DOJ Tax is blessed with someone who can take the reins and do great service to the country.  Congratulations, Kathy.

Justices Jackson and Frankfurter on Duty to the United States Through Reporting and Paying Taxes

As some of the Alumni know, Justice Robert H. Jackson had, prior to serving on the Supreme Court as the chief United States prosecutor for the Nuremburg Trails, has served both as general counsel of the Treasury where his responsibilities included the IRS and as Assistant Attorney General heading the Tax Division. I received the following email today from Professor John Q. Barrett of St. John's Law School and Fellow of the Robert H. Jackson Center, Inc.. I thought readers would be interested in this email and received permission from Professor Barrett to pass it along. (I have some links at the end for readers desiring to see more on Justice Jackson and some may want to join Professor Barret's email list as well.)

For the Jackson List:

In summer 1962, Justice Felix Frankfurter, age 79 and disabled by a stroke, retired from the Supreme Court of the United States after 23 years of service.

As a retired Justice, Frankfurter kept his mind and interested eyes on many matters. In winter 1964, for example, he spotted, or someone called to his attention, a quotation that an official U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) form attributed to his late colleague Robert H. Jackson (who once had been the Revenue bureau’s chief counsel). According to the IRS, Jackson once said or wrote—no source was specified—that “[t]he United States has a system of taxation by confession. That a people so numerous, scattered and individualistic annually assesses itself with a tax liability, often in highly burdensome amounts, is a reassuring sign of the stability and vitality of our system of self-government.”

DiCicco is now Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General

John DiCicco's time to serve as Assistant Attorney General ran out, so he was given a new, specially created title, in the absence of an Assistant Attorney General so that he could continue to run the Tax Divisoin.  That title is Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General.  Main Justice has an article giving some of the details titled Manuever Allows Career Lawyer to Wield Power in Tax Division.  (Note that you may have to create an account with Main Justice to read the article, but those interested in the Tax Division and DOJ generally will want to do that.)  The article cites Tax Division Directive No. 139 as to authorities delegated during the period of the absence of an AAG.  Finally, the article notes the Administration claim that the appointment of an AAG is in the works.

Senate Sends DOJ Tax AAG Nominee's Name Back to President.

See the Main Justice article here.

Main Justice Article on Ex-DOJ Official Urging Action on Smith DOJ Tax AAG Nomination

Main Justice has this article:  Ex-DOJ Official Urges Vote On Tax Division Nominee.

Update on Confirmation for DOJ Tax AAG Nominee

Main Justice has posted this May 6 article on the nomination of Mary L. Smith as AAG Tax: Opposition To DOJ Tax Division Nominee Continues

Update on Confirmation for DOJ Tax AAG Nominee

From the Chicago Tribune:

Waiting for confirmation

President Barack Obama has 90 nominees awaiting Senate confirmation, and Chicagoan Mary Smith has been waiting the longest of them all, according to White House data.

About 380 days ago, Obama nominated Smith, 47, a Clinton White House lawyer and a former partner with Schoeman, Updike & Kaufman in Chicago, to lead the attorney general's tax division. After Republicans sent the appointment back to the president, citing Smith's lack of tax-law experience, Obama nominated her again. 

According to a congressional aide who declined to be named, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is blocking votes on any nominee opposed by all Republicans in committee, a category that applies to Smith. But the aide predicted Smith would eventually be confirmed in a deal packaging one or two Republican nominees for bipartisan boards with three or four Democratic nominees.

Smith has spent most of her career alternating between practicing law and working on political campaigns, having served as a lawyer in the Department of Justice's civil division; an aide on four presidential campaigns; senior counsel for Tyco International; and a member of Obama's transition team, where she reviewed the division she has been nominated to lead.

"The confirmation process, I think, is broken," said Abner Mikva, a retired federal judge and one of several Chicagoans who wrote Congress endorsing Smith. "I know this sounds partisan, but the Republicans are being ridiculous. She's very qualified. They ought to get out of the way."

In February, Smith joined the Department of Justice, anyway, as senior counsel to the assistant attorney general in charge of the civil division.

Mary Smith On Hold in the Civil Division Awaiting Senate Action

Main Justice reports here that Mary Smiht, the AAG Tax appointee, is waiting out the games / angst of the Republicans as Senior Counsel to Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Division.

Senate Judiciary Committee Clears Smith for AAG Tax

See this article from Main Justice.

President Obama to Renominate Mary Smith for DOJ Tax AAG

See this Main Justice posting.

Smith's Nomination to Head DOJ Tax is Returned to White House

See this article in Main Justice.

Senator Durbin Urges Favorable Action on Smith AAG Tax Nomination

Main Justice has article titled "Durbin Calls for Action on Tax Division Nominee" with Durbin's statement in full. The article is here.

Update on Mary Smith nomination for AAG Tax

Main Justice has a report here this morning titled "American Indian Leaders Question Delays On Tax Nominee."

The American indian constituency is circling the wagons (is that the right metaphor?) for Mary Smith, whose nomination as AAG Tax has been pending for some time now. The article is a nice piece setting forth the concerns. The article also quotes Tax Division alums Nathan Hochman (former AAG) and Carr Ferguson (former AAG chief and, long before that, real line attorney at DOJ Tax). (Note that Main Justice apparently picked up the wrong picture of Carr; the picture in the article as of my reading at 8:00 this morning is of Ronald Jensen of Pace University Law School; for a real picture of Carr along with a great article on him, see here.)

For the previous blogs on Mary Smith, see here.

Mary Smith AAG Confirmation Documents

The documents related to Mary Smith's confirmation as AAG may be accessed here. Included is the webcast of the hearing considering Gerard Lynch for a spot of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and Ms. Smith for DOJ Tax AAG. The questions to and answers of the nominees are interspersed, so readers wishing to focus on only one nominee will just have to fast forward to the pertinent sections.

DOJ Tax AAG Designate Smith gets Senate Judiciay Committee Approval

The Legal Times has an article on the approval of Ms. Smith here. The approval was on party lines. The Republicans stated complaint was her lack of relevant experience.

I previously blogged Ms. Smith's nomination here.

The article also reports the committee's approval of U.S. District Judge (SDNY) Gerard Lynch for the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. This nomination was approved on voice vote without dissent.

Thanks to the Tax Prof Blog here from which I picked up this item.

Former AAG Hochman joins Bingham McCutcheon

The Tax Prof Blog reports here that Nathan Hochman will join Bingham McCutchen's Santa Monica, Calif., office on May 1 (today). The Bingham McCutcheon press release is here.

Mary L. Smith, AAG DOJ Tax Designee

According to a White House Press Release on 4/8/2009. the President announced his intent to nominate Mary L. Smith Assistant Attorney General, Tax Division. The portion of the press release related to Ms. Smith is:

Mary L. Smith currently is a Partner at Schoeman, Updike, Kaufman & Scharf LLP, a women-owned firm. Smith specializes in complex litigation, regulatory practice, and government investigations. Earlier in her career, she served as Senior Litigation Counsel at Tyco International (US) Inc. where she managed the securities class action multi-district litigation – one of the largest cases pending in the country. While at Tyco, Smith interacted with the tax department on a range of issues including employee benefits and more strategic issues involving litigation and the company’s corporate reorganization. Prior to Tyco, she was an attorney at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in Washington, D.C. Prior to her time at Skadden, Smith served in the Clinton White House as Associate Counsel to the President and Associate Director of Policy Planning where she was responsible for a number of policy areas including domestic violence, tax issues, equal pay, Internet gambling, Native American issues, and civil rights issues. She was the highest-ranking Native American in the White House during the Clinton Administration. From 1994-96, Smith served as a trial attorney for the United States Department of Justice Civil Division. Smith graduated from the University of Chicago School of Law, cum laude, where she was a member of the Law Review. Smith clerked for the Hon. R. Lanier Anderson III of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. She received a B.S., magna cum laude, from Loyola University of Chicago. Smith is a member of the American Bar Association’s Commission on Women in the Profession and a member of the Board of Managers for the Chicago Bar Association.