Senate Judiciary To Be Led By Non-Lawyers
November 17, 2016
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) this week became the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, joining Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) as a non-lawyer in that leadership position. In 2014, Grassley became the first non-lawyer to be elected chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in its history. He led the Senate majority’s resistance to voting on President Barack Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court, Merrick Garland. Now Feinstein will join him in vetting President-Elect Donald Trump’s judicial appointments. The committee also oversees the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security. Having non-lawyers lead the committee “illustrates how legal issues are increasingly seen as societal and political issues,” Steven A. Cash, former chief counsel to Feinstein and now a lawyer with Day Pitney LLP, told the Wall Street Journal. “What’s important here is good, hard-working, smart people running these committees, not whether they have a law degree or not.”
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