The Shadow Office of Legal Counsel Head

Last spring, I wrote extensively about Dawn Johnsen, the Obama administration’s stridently leftist nominee to head the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) at the Justice Department. To my surprise, the Senate has not confirmed Johnsen and does not seem poised to do so.
Yet, Johnsen may be involving herself in OLC’s decisions on hiring junior lawyers. That, at least, is what Ed Whelan is hearing from sources he considers reliable.
If this is true, it will not endear Johnsen to the Senate. Rather, as Ed puts it, such actions “would seem a serious violation of the Senate’s understanding of pre-confirmation etiquette–an etiquette that is especially punctilious for nominees who have generated controversy–and would give senators additional reason to oppose her nomination.”