The firings of seven United States attorneys in late 2006.
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In this module, we are asked to read about the firings of seven United States attorneys in late 2006. We are asked whether or not these attorney's have statutory protection from the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) against dismissal, our personal feelings on whether this move was "fair", and what we feel the implications could be for public administration if the issue is let go. In researching the current status of this case, I did find an article that was released within the hour of typing my case, and like most federal cases involving the upper echelon of government, it is still ongoing. This latest headline states, "DC Grand Jury Issues Subpoenas in Probe Into U.S. Attorney Firings", in which these subpoenas are expected to be for documents and e-mails. And, one by one, those involved seem to be resigning, and with the upcoming administration change, more people will be replaced. (Leopold, 2008) And in another article published today, The New York Times writes that the new Attorney General will have to keep up on this investigation once approved and sworn in. (The New York Times, 2008) In the end, I hope to answer these questions without much vagueness as is so the norm of the U.S. political system.
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Solution Summary
Thanks to Ms. Margaret Baker's timely response to my question, my thoughts were confirmed as to whether or not U.S. Attorneys get protection from the MSPB when it comes to early dismissal. When it comes to fairness, you need to decide what definition you are looking for, and which one is appropriate for the question being asked. Were these lawyers terminated by following the rules ... I'm thinking so. Were these terminations done on the up and up ... maybe not, but politics are not for the faint of heart. The rules of governing are set up for a reason ... they work, for now. The Constitution also states that while a U.S. Senator is sitting in that position, and a cabinet positions salary is increased, that Senator (or any other sitting Senator at the time of the pay raise) may not take that position. We'll see how much attention that issue gets in the next year.
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INTRODUCTION
In this module, we are asked to read about the firings of seven United States attorneys in late 2006. We are asked whether or not these attorney's have statutory protection from the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) against dismissal, our personal feelings on whether this move was "fair", and what we feel the implications could be for public administration if the issue is let go. In researching the current status of this case, I did find an article that was released within the hour of typing my case, and like most federal cases involving the upper echelon of government, it is still ongoing. This latest headline states, "DC Grand Jury Issues Subpoenas in Probe Into U.S. Attorney Firings", in which these subpoenas are expected to be for documents and e-mails. And, one by one, those involved seem to be resigning, and with the upcoming administration change, more people will be replaced. (Leopold, 2008) And in another article published today, The New York Times writes that the new Attorney General will have to keep up on this investigation once approved and sworn in. (The New York Times, 2008) In the end, I hope to answer these questions without much vagueness as is so the norm of the U.S. political system.
STATUTORY PROTECTION
When first reading the question of whether or not U.S. attorney's have protection from the MSPB against dismissal, I thought that this could possibly be a yes or no answer. So in order to cut to the chase, I e-mailed a few contacts from their website to see if I could get the views from the people working from within. Not surprising, one, this does not seem to be a yes or no question (I guess this would be a really short paper had it been), and two, the folks at the MSPB answer e-mail as quickly as I do at work. When searching the MSPB website for ...
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