WASHINGTON – A Hoosier whose nomination for a top job in the Obama administration became a stand-in for a fight over abortion and a disagreement about Bush-era policies on torture will be re-nominated.
An administration official said Friday that President Obama will stick by Indiana University law professor Dawn Johnsen, whose confirmation was delayed for months by Senate Republicans.
Johnsen is Obama's choice to head the Justice Department office that provides legal advice and opinions to federal agencies, including the White House.
Her nomination was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee in March, but the full Senate never voted. Her nomination was sent back to the White House when the Senate ended its business in December; that action requires the president to either re-nominate a candidate or make another choice.
Conservatives have criticized Johnsen on several counts, although Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., supports Johnsen’s nomination.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said Johnsen doesn't have the "requisite seriousness" to head the Office of Legal Counsel and is a "hardened partisan ... with such apparent disdain for her political and ideological opponents."
When Johnsen was legal director of NARAL Pro-Choice America, she filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the Supreme Court in 1989. A footnote said forcing a woman to bear a child when she had no desire to do so was "disturbingly suggestive of involuntary servitude."
Critics have described that argument as equating pregnancy with slavery.
During her confirmation hearing, Johnsen said she didn't make that analogy and doesn't believe pregnancy is a violation of the 13th Amendment, which outlaws slavery.
Johnsen was acting director of the Office of Legal Counsel during the Clinton administration.
Later, she criticized memorandums by Bush administration lawyers at the Office of Legal Counsel that said the president could largely ignore international treaties and Congress in fighting terrorists. The opinions were the justification for the use of torture in interrogation.
