A friend of mine and I were discussing this last night, and she – being a law-school grad – remarked that Kagan may turn down the appointment if she were more comfortable in academia. I responded by asking if “Dean” was the top spot at Harvard School of Law.

‘Well, no,’ she replied.

Okay, I know this is a side issue, but I’m not aware of any position higher than Dean at HLS. I guess you’re subordinate to the university president (and at the mercy of your own fractious faculty), but as far as the law school goes, you’re the boss.

Its likely that if he grabs people with prior federal executive experience he’ll go with clinton people, though he has some bush people in too. Bush reached as far back as the nixon admin when filling his cabinet. Seems odd for someone to come in with a team that has never worked at a prior admin.

So far, while he has some scandals still popping up, he has done OK and made no huge gaffes. My expectations are low and he has met them so far.

First, all four announced appointments require Senate Confirmation. They are all political positions.

Second, Kagen is being positioned to take the first Supreme Court vacancy. She’s gotten very positive comments from conservative legal experts, and has a history of appreciating a diversity of views on Constitutional issues while at Harvard. The SG’s office has a staff of high quality Deputy Solicitors, and I expect she allow them to argue most of the cases before the Supreme Court early in her tenure, and she may argue some of the low profile cases simply to get her feet wet. I don’t expect that given her lack of courtroom experience that she would want to take on a high profile matter right at the outset.

Third, Johnson at OLC is going to be less signficant as the Obama administration allows power to recede back to Congress. OLC was important to the Bush Administration’s effort to reassert Executive Authority under Article II.

Prior to that, the main function of OLC has always been to resolve conflicts between Executive Branch entities that have a disagreement about what the law requires. Since the Justice Dept. can’t sue the Labor Dept., there had to be an entity in the Gov’t that had the final word over any such disputes. That is OLC.

Fourth — and IMO — most significant, the new Dep.AG has ZERO criminal law experience. He ran the Civil Division under Reno, and was later her Chief of Staff. By all indications he’s a quality guy, but the Dep. AG really runs the day-to-day operations of the entire Dept., and to hae someone with no criminal or national security law background in that position is significant.

What I suspect it signals is a renewed emphasis on the regulatory elements of the Justice Dept — Civil Rights, Environment and Natural Resources, Tax, and Anti-Trust.

Not announced yesterday were Assitant AGs for the Criminal Division and for the National Security Division. Those will be interesting when they are made.

Look how many Obama administration scandals we have before we even have an Obama administration.

I wonder whether Zoe Baird can be reached for a quote.