Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and the Western Watershed Project claim Margaret Everson is serving illegally as director of the National Park Service/DOI
Margaret Everson, who has been serving as acting director of the National Park Service since August 7, was illegally appointed and should be removed, according to a court filing by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.
PEER originally raised that issue in late August, arguing that her appointment violates the Federal Vacancies Reform Act because the Park Service director is a position requiring “advice and consent” of the U.S. Senate under the Constitution, and that it may only be filled on a temporary basis by:
• A qualified official appointed directly by the President, not Secretary Bernhardt, or
• The “first assistant” to the former Director. "
On Wednesday the nonprofit organization, in an expedited motion filed in a DC District Court, said Interior Secretary David Bernhardt’s series of efforts to evade Senate confirmation for the National Park Service’s top official requires Everson's prompt removal.
PEER and Western Watersheds Project, a watchdog group, assert that Everson’s designation violates the Federal Vacancies Reform Act because the Park Service director is a position requiring “advice and consent” of the U.S. Senate under the Constitution, and now it may only be filled on a temporary basis by a qualified official appointed directly by the president, not Bernhardt.
President Trump has refused to put forth a nominee for Park Service director to the Senate or to appoint an “acting Director,” which only he can do under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, the groups said.
Everson’s appointment follows a series of other unconfirmed lower-level officials put in the NPS job during this administration. This will be the first presidential term since the Park Service was created in 1916, in which it will have no actual director, PEER claimed in a release.
"Everson has never even worked in the NPS before – and she still doesn’t. She claims to exercise the director’s power while also keeping her 'day job' as Counselor to the Secretary," the release added.
The Trump administration just lost a similar legal challenge on September 25 when the chief judge of the Montana District Court directly ousted William Pendley from his de facto director position atop the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. PEER and WWP also had sued to oust Pendley, but they are deferring to the Montana ruling unless it changes.
“Margaret Everson is the latest in a carousel of illegal appointees to be shuffled through the Department of the Interior,” said Tim Whitehouse, PEER's executive director. “We are asking the federal court to stand up to Secretary Bernhardt’s self-serving word games and show Everson the door.”
“We’re gratified with William Pendley’s removal, but the Trump administration has been engaging in a pattern of illegal appointments as a means to dodge the transparency and accountability of the Senate confirmation process,” added Erik Molvar, executive director of WWP. “It is critical that appointees are able to pass the test of Senate scrutiny before they are put in charge of important federal agencies.”
The Federal Vacancies Reform Act holds that actions taken by noncompliant officials are “without force or effect” and may not later be ratified. On that basis, in addition to the Montana Court tossing Pendley entirely out of his “director’s chair,” federal courts in Washington, D.C., and Maryland have recently invalidated actions by “acting” DHS Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli and “acting” DHS Secretary Chad Wolf.
The District Court that ruled Pendley’s tenure at BLM is illegal is now trying to identify all of his actions that will be invalidated, said PEER. A similar ruling involving Everson could nullify all actions she has taken during her short tenure at NPS and block her from further decision-making. The net result is that many actions taken by these unconfirmed appointees are null and void, the groups said without identifying any specific actions taken by Everson.
The NPS director has broad powers. He or she is responsible for protecting and preserving 85 million acres consisting of the beloved “crown jewels” of the public lands system.
Comments
Total waste of time. This particular Acting Director is the most engaged, hardest working, and by far the most competent one the NPS has had during the past 4 years. Not sure what Mr. Pendley did while at BLM but the comparison is not valid in terms of what is going on in the NPS. It is pretty arrogant of PEER to think every action of this Acting Director is null and void. This sentence says it all : "without identifying any specific actions taken by Everson"
I would argue that no matter what happens in the next election the NPS SHOULD NOT ever think having a career director is in its best interest. Having career deputies and competent political director is the way to go.
So, Cotton Mather Forever, let's say that, instead of my completing any appropriately relevant police academy program or being properly or even legally hired as a law enforcement officer, my well-heeled friends just dressed me up in a state police uniform, put a top quality counterfeit badge on me, armed and equiped me for the part, stuck me in an appropriate restomod of some modern equivalent of a crown vic interceptor, and sent me out on one helluva dusk to dawn highway patrol. Would that be okay with you? The tragedy is that I strongly suspect that, regardless of the law or due process of any kind, it actually would be okay with you if whatever unconscionable mischief I perpetrated was in line with your adolescent political beliefs. Otherwise, you'd squawk like molested poultry.
Frankly, I get really tired of trying to explain the difference between legitimate due process and the concept of might makes right to bellicose overaged children who are just flat intellectually and emotionally incapable of understanding the concepts. Just because you chant the words "principles" and "Constitution" as loudly as you can and occasionally strut around in costume doesn't mean a damn thing if you really don't understand the concepts.
Margaret Everson's appointment violated the law. It doesn't matter how nice or how cute you think or anybody else thinks she is. The truth is it doesn't matter how engaged, hard working, or competent she is. It doesn't even matter whether what she's done or will do is good or bad or does or doesn't match anybody's political agenda. The law establishes processes by which someone can be placed in the position she now occupies; those relevant legal requirements weren't followed; there was no legitimate due process whatsoever involved in her appointment; and that's that. Under those circumstances, anything and everything she does while occupying that position, whether good or bad in anyone's opinion, is illegal and must be considered null and void. That's the law; grow up and deal with it.
National Park Service Administrative Reform Act of 1996 (now codified as 16 U.S.C. SS1) specifis that the NPS Director must have experience in managing public lands.
"... a director who shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. The Director shall have substantial experience and demonstrated competence in land management and natural or cultural resource conservation. The Director shall select two Deputy Directors. The first Deputy Director shall have responsibility for National Park Service operations, and the second Deputy Director shall have responsibility for other programs assigned to the National Park Service."
Well, Mather Forever. If this appointee is as wonderful as you say she is then it should have been easy for Trump to have her go through the Senate confirmation process and save everybody a lot of aggravation. It's not that difficult. A person who is well qualified and competent should be able to do it easily in a very short time.
BINGO, nice catch and cheers for you, Oceanadrian.
Right now I really don't think that Mr Trump has anyone's job standing in mind other than his own. All the others [i.e., Justice Ginsberg's replacement] only matter as far as they can contribute to his own re-election campaign.
BINGO, again!