Justice on the Mend
The new attorney general's first steps are encouraging.

Monday, December 3, 2007

THERE HAVE been several hopeful developments since the arrival of Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey at the Justice Department in early November.

Within days of Mr. Mukasey's confirmation, the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility proceeded with an investigation, stifled earlier by the White House, concerning the administration's terrorist surveillance program. While the department's inspector general has already been looking into the matter, allowing the OPR investigation to go forward sends an important symbolic message, especially in light of critics' concerns that the probe had been quashed for political reasons.

Not long after, the department announced that it was bringing back to Washington U.S. Attorney Rachel Paulose of the District of Minnesota. Ms. Paulose was eyed with suspicion in part because she was appointed to the U.S. attorney's post with no managerial experience and at an extraordinarily young age, 33. She was criticized fairly for heavy-handed leadership but tagged unfairly as a Bush lackey. Her intellect and talent are better suited to her new post in the Office of Legal Policy, a more academic component that develops broad policy initiatives for the department.

Finally, President Bush announced the nomination of U.S. District Judge Mark R. Filip of Chicago as deputy attorney general. Although there are questions about whether he has the experience to manage the bureaucratic behemoth, he is respected and seen as a straight shooter.

Mr. Mukasey cannot be credited with instigating all of these developments. But he did sign off on all of them, something that Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales probably would not have done.

Beyond these initial steps, there is, obviously, work to do. For starters, Mr. Mukasey should make good on his promise during his confirmation hearing to discard the Gonzales-era policy that authorized hundreds of Justice Department employees to speak with White House and congressional personnel about pending investigations, a policy that opened the department to charges that politics was infecting what should be an apolitical approach to investigations and prosecutions. Mr. Mukasey testified that he would rewrite the policy to allow only the top leaders at the Justice Department to communicate about pending cases or investigations. He should issue the new policy forthwith.

Mr. Mukasey, as he also promised during his confirmation hearings, should expedite the review of all Office of Legal Counsel memoranda that provide the underpinnings for the administration's interrogation of terror suspects. And he should issue a public report about his findings.

Finally, the new attorney general, a former federal judge, should work with the White House to ensure that nominations are made for all top Justice Department posts and judicial slots, especially the dozen or so that are considered "judicial emergencies" because they have been vacant for so long.