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Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against the DOJ
It was bound to happen when you had a big mess of lawyers disqualified from hiring for illegal reasons. One of the de-selected masses filed a lawsuit claiming $100,000 in damages on Monday.
As the The Blog of Legal Times wrote yesterday:
The class action by Sean Gerlich -- filed yesterday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia -- is the first suit resulting from an internal Justice report issued last week that says two former Justice officials illegally screened applicants to the honors and summer intern programs.The two officials were Esther Slater McDonald, then counsel to the associate attorney general and now an associate at Seyfarth Shaw, and Michael Elston, then chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty and now a partner at McGuireWoods.
Gerlich's suit says the department politicized the selection process, mishandled the applications and failed to maintain the records, all in violation of the Privacy Act, the Civil Service Reform Act and the Federal Records Act. In addition, the suit claims violations of the First and 14th Amendments.
Gerlich says he was rejected because of his liberal affiliations, which officials dug up through Internet searches.
Josh
Zachary
Let's get the USA 10 in there with a suit, too.
I think of how it's the lawyers in Pakistan who are banding together to fight for democracy, and I wonder where our parades of demonstrating attorneys are. If they have to do it in the American way—for profit—then so be it. If the end is that the punishment is severe enough that no administration will try to do this crap again, then let them get some damages from it.
I just want the truth to be out there for all to see. Maybe on Court TV.
July 2, 2008 12:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
About f()cking time.
ITMFA.
July 2, 2008 12:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
This should be fun to watch. I'm sure the DoJ will claim it can't be sued, but if the suit goes forward, to see McDonald and Elston grilled on the stand would make my little schaudenfreuda heart skip a beat!
July 2, 2008 12:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
It should be noted that hiring maestron Esther Slater McDonald was an undergraduate at Pensacola Christian College, an unaccredited institution that prohibits men and women from shaking hands, or using the same stairwells.
July 2, 2008 12:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
This will get bigger.
Political appointees took over the Federal Government career service hiring decisions during the Bush Administration. (Before, it was career employees hiring career employees).
What litmus tests were used to screen career service applicants at Agriculture? Defense? EPA? Were they eliminated because they worked in the Clinton Administration? Were registered Democrats? Lived on the wrong block?
When Bush came into office, it was already known that the Federal Government was facing a hiring crisis - that many, MANY, career civil servants were about to retire and the jobs needed to be filled. What did they do? They only made it harder - by imposing an illegal political litmus test on what are nonpartisan jobs.
Yessir, a huge wave of lawsuits is coming based on unfair Federal hiring practices - that were instituted by Bush's political appointees.
July 2, 2008 12:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
When you elect people who believe that government can't work, you get a government that doesn't work. To the Bushies, worsening a hiring crisis was just more fodder for "government is the problem" demagogue rhetoric and privatization kickbacks.
July 2, 2008 12:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly.
Republicans claim that government doesn't work.
Just vote for them, and they'll prove it.
-- ARG
July 2, 2008 1:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Stonewall Mukasey will claim executive privilege and ask that the lawsuits be dismissed.
July 2, 2008 12:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
I wish I could claim executive privilege every time someone calls me on my bullshit.
July 2, 2008 2:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, tammanycall, that's just bullshit.
July 2, 2008 7:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not much new here. We all knew long ago what Alberto was doing. I'll improvise to make this a more interesting thread.
ESTHER!
Esther, Esther, bo Bester, Bonana fana fo fester
Fee Fy mo mester!
ESTHER!
July 2, 2008 9:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think they will win most of these cases or should. Guess who pays? You guessed it----the American Taxpayer.
July 3, 2008 4:47 AM | Reply | Permalink