Appointment called unconstitutional

A lawyer alleges recent U.S. attorney selection violates appointments clause.

By Henry Weinstein, Times Staff Writer
January 25, 2007

A veteran Little Rock, Ark., attorney has lodged the first constitutional challenge to the Bush administration's attempt to appoint a U.S. attorney without seeking Senate approval.

John Wesley Hall alleged in a brief filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Little Rock that Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales' Dec. 20 appointment of Tim Griffin as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas violated the presidential appointments clause of the Constitution.