Momentarily, the Senate Judiciary Committee will begin a hearing on “Special Counsels and the Separation of Powers,” where the principal focus will be on the two pending bills designed to protect Special Counsels (like the one pictured above) from being terminated without good cause — Senator Graham and Senator Booker’s “Special Counsel Independence Protection Act,” and Senator Tillis and Senator Coons’s “Special Counsel Integrity Act.” Both bills would provide that, when the Attorney General believes he has cause to remove the Special Counsel under 28 C.F.R. 600.7(d), that decision would ultimately be subject to review by a three-judge D.D.C. district court. The major difference between the proposals is when that review would happen, but the basic structural idea is the same.
The witnesses (with links to their prepared testimony) are Yale Law School’s Akhil Amar, UVa Law’s John Duffy, Chicago Law’s Eric Posner, and yours truly. (For helpful additional background on the issue and the bills, see Marty’s thorough post from August.)
The Committee’s website promises a livestream of the video once the hearing begins, which should be available at this link.
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