California Republican challenges state's hiring of Eric Holder to fight Trump policies
Source: Reuters
Mon Jan 9, 2017 | 9:45pm EST
By Sharon Bernstein | SACRAMENTO, CALIF.
A California Republican state lawmaker is challenging the legality of a move by Democrats in the legislature to hire former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to help in any legal battles with President-elect Donald Trump's administration.
Assembly member Kevin Kiley has requested a formal ruling from state lawyers on whether the decision by Democratic legislative leaders to hire Holder and his firm, Covington & Burling, for $25,000 a month violated a provision in the state's constitution that bans hiring outside counsel for work the state's own lawyers can do.
"People might have differing feelings about Eric Holder and about the incoming presidential administration, but all of us should be able to agree that as legislators we have a duty to abide by the law," Kiley, an attorney, said in a phone interview on Monday.
Kiley's request came on the eve of hearings in the Democratic-led legislature on the nomination of U.S. Representative Xavier Becerra as state attorney general, another move by Democrats to position California to defend its liberal policies against the Republican Trump. America's most populous state voted heavily for Democrat Hillary Clinton in the Nov. 8 presidential election.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-california-trump-holder-idUSKBN14U07M?rpc=401&
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