Government attorneys and politics Forum

[RobertBets]

So do government attorneys like AUSA's, etc. ever feel like they are being forced to compromise their political principles? Like would a strong conservative be able to work under a Democrat-appointed US Attorney and vice versa? How much do politics play a role in the government legal profession? Thanks.

[lapolicia]

So do government attorneys like AUSA's, etc. ever feel like they are being forced to compromise their political principles? Like would a strong conservative be able to work under a Democrat-appointed US Attorney and vice versa? How much do politics play a role in the government legal profession? Thanks.

On the federal level, I think that politics generally play a minimal role until you reach a very high level. There's strong civil service protection rules that prevent political appointees from discriminating against you for your political beliefs. In general, at at most agencies the work you do is the same regardless of whether its a Democratic administration or a Republican one. U.S. Attorneys in particular are supposed to be relatively non-partisan, even though they are appointed. That's why it was such a scandal during the Bush Administration when U.S. Attorneys were fired under false pretenses for having the wrong political beliefs and highly partisan U.S. Attorneys like Rachel Poulose (who was eventually fired after the staff rebelled) were appointed. Of course, whether or not you have to compromise your ideals depends on your political beliefs. If you do not believe that taxes should exist and you work at the IRS, you have a problem. But in general you won't face significant pressure on your beliefs, and if you do its not too hard to recuse yourself because of the civil service protections you have. Government attorneys do tend to lean heavily Democrat though, for obvious reasons (you generally don't vote for the party that thinks you are what's wrong with the country), but there are plenty of exceptions.

[shump92]

A somewhat relevant tangent to the good post above is that different administrations can impact the work that offices are able to do. Influence from presidents on SCOTUS and certain federal laws (in addition to political appointees at the top) does inherently change the function of certain agencies. And depending on how important the political context of the work an attorney does is to that individual, there is some potential for hard-core idealists to feel their beliefs are compromised.

[ndirish2010]

I would imagine, as above posters have said, that politics matter very little for your average AUSA. But they probably matter quite a bit if you're working in the SG's office, or DOJ Civil Rights, etc.