You won’t see this in the MSM, maybe one of the London newspapers. What does it say when you have to go to a foreign news source for domestic political news. This according to Hans von Spakovsky, a political commentator. 

Vanita Gupta, the acting head of the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, apparently has been working in violation of federal law for more than a year and a half.

Congress passed the Federal Vacancies Reform Act in 1998. A key section of the law sets restrictions and time limitations on how long someone can remain as the “acting” official in a position that must be confirmed by the Senate. The assistant attorney general for Civil Rights is one such position, according to the “Plum Book,” the official list of all such positions.     

The law stipulates that, if the president submits a nomination to the Senate, the 210-day limit can be extended as long as the nomination is pending in the Senate. But it also stipulates that if an acting officer violates this time limitation, all actions taken by that individual “shall have no force or effect.” Civil-rights-division-head-violating-federal-law-and-her-actions.

What this means is that without a designated “acting” official no official action can take  place. Executive orders without authority, mandates and regulations without the force of law legitimizing them, extra legal appointments or not to meet an agenda that could not otherwise be implemented are all part of this administration’s playbook.

Her biography on the Civil Rights Division website says she was appointed on Oct. 15, 2014, by President Barack Obama “to lead the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice.” It describes her as the “chief civil rights prosecutor for the United States.”

The official Justice Department press release from that same day states that Gupta will “serve as principal deputy assistant attorney general and acting assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division” (emphasis added). Why is this important? Because Obama never actually nominated Gupta to be the assistant attorney general for Civil Rights, nor did he ever recess appoint her into the job.

Gupta, an attorney, did not have the authority to be the acting assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, but she did it anyway. Put this in the context of your occupation. If it was revealed on Tuesday that you had acted outside the scope of your employment, potentially exposing your company to damages and liability totaling in the millions of dollars, would you still be employed on Wednesday?

It gets worse. The administration tried an unpopular appointment to the Labor Relations Board. The appellate court upheld the current law and ruled against the administration. When the administration felt like an appointment would not be controversial, they followed the law. After the reversal in court, when faced with a controversial appointment, they ignored the law.

Let’s be a little clearer here, there is one way to do things, depending on the situation the administration has proceeded along three different lines. It is difficult to claim that this accidental. I could buy an accident if multiple appointments were flawed in the same manner. (One way to do things and that wasn’t it, times 3). I might even understand a calendar error, this should have been done in 210 days, it is now day 535. I cannot accept, OOPS which appears to be the only avenue left to the administration. None of these explanations explains the basic incompetence of the administration.

If the head of the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, implements rules and regulations without the legal authority to do so, is that a civil rights violation?