Legal Commentary

Elizabeth Warren to Get Advisory Appointment

By Jonathan H. Adler

ABCNews (among other news outlets) is reporting that President Obama will tap Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren to help get the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency off the ground, but is not (yet) planning to nominate her to head the new agency.

President Obama will announce this week that Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard Law School professor who first proposed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, will be named to a special position reporting to both him and to the Treasury Department and tasked with heading the effort to get the new federal agency standing, a knowledgeable Democrat told ABC News. . . .

Naming Warren as an assistant or counselor to both the president and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner would allow the president to bypass a Senate confirmation process that could prove lengthy and contentious. . . .

Since nominees facing the confirmation process also enter a period of public silence, avoiding the confirmation process would also allow Warren to publicly discuss the agency and its benefits, which the president is eager for her to do.

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on September 15, 2010 (boomark / email).