Interim US Attorney Ellison

Our Legal Beagles are on the case of new New Mexico US attorney Ryan Ellison. 

Ellison was appointed USA by Attorney General Pam Bondi in April, sworn in by a federal judge and has since been moving aggressively to put the Trump administration's imprint on the important office. 

His powers are so formidable that US attorneys are required to be nominated by the president and confirmed by the US Senate. 

But that longstanding oversight has been put on the shelf for Ellison and other US attorneys through the appointment process. 

One of our Beagles checks in on this most unusual turn of events:

Joe, Ryan Ellison was named as U.S. Attorney for New Mexico on April 18, but no one seems to care that he wasn't nominated by the President nor confirmed by the Senate. At best, he can be the "Interim U.S. Attorney," and it should clearly state that on the Justice Dept. website. Instead, his profile states he is the U.S. Attorney. Ellison has already named an entirely new management team and restructured the criminal division.

Trump seems to be just skipping the nominations of U.S. Attorneys in many districts and the AG is appointing them--skipping any input by home state senators (Sens. Heinrich and Lujan do have blue slips for U.S. Attorney nominees in the District of NM) and avoiding the Senate confirmation process. 

Has anyone asked Heinrich and Lujan if they are recommending candidates to the White House for a Senate confirmed U.S. Attorney? Seems they've abdicated their authority in this process and let Trump install a U.S. Attorney without any Senate confirmation. So much for the "Advice and Consent" clause of the Constitution.

More importantly, are they going to do the same thing when a federal judgeship vacancy opens up in the district, and not weigh in for a lifetime appointment to the bench? Those judges typically serve 20+ years - will Martin and Ben Ray do their jobs? 

Ellison, 37, is a native of Alamogordo who since 2018 served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Las Cruces Branch Office as Supervisory Assistant U.S. Attorney of the Violent and General Crimes Section.

He's not wasting time aggressively pursing Trump's tough immigration policies: 

U.S. Attorney Ryan Ellison announced the office won its first cases of trespassing within the state’s newly created military buffer zone. In mid-April, the U.S. Department of Interior transferred. . land to the U.S. Army, after which the Army made it an extension of the Fort Huachuca Army installation in Arizona. That same day, the fort’s commander issued a regulation designating the land as a restricted area. The U.S. Attorney’s Office then started charging people with trespassing, now called the New Mexico National Defense Area.

That's a whole new way of doing immigration policy. It may or may not be fine but surely the individual commanding such powers should be subjected to the checks and balances that prevent the abuse of those powers?

This is the Home of New Mexico Politics.