President Donald Trump has tapped Eugene Scalia, the son of a judicial icon, to be the new labor secretary.
The nomination comes a week after Alex Acosta announced he was stepping down from the post, effective today.
Scalia—a former solicitor for the Labor Department and now a partner in the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher—is the second-oldest son of the late Antonin Scalia, who served on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1986 until his death in 2016.
....working with labor and everyone else. He will be a great member of an Administration that has done more in the first 2 ½ years than perhaps any Administration in history!
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“I am pleased to announce that it is my intention to nominate Gene Scalia as the new Secretary of Labor. Gene has led a life of great success in the legal and labor field and is highly respected not only as a lawyer, but as a lawyer with great experience,” Trump tweeted, adding, “working with labor and everyone else. He will be a great member of an administration that has done more in the first two and a half years than perhaps any administration in history!”
Trump’s announcement on Twitter came on Acosta’s final day at the Labor Department, as he announced last Friday that his resignation would become effective in a week. The embattled secretary stepped down over questions concerning his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein sexual-abuse case in 2008 when he was the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida.
If Scalia is confirmed by the Senate, he will replace the acting secretary, Patrick Pizzella, the deputy labor secretary.
Trump already has a backlog of nominees in the Senate, and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., has already made clear his disapproval of Trump’s choice.
President @realDonaldTrump is missing an opportunity to nominate a fighter for workers, like a union member, to be America’s next Labor Secretary.
Instead, he has again chosen someone who has proven to put corporate interests over those of worker rights.nytimes.com/2019/07/18/us/…
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Gene Scalia is an outstanding lawyer who has vigorously defended the Constitution over a long career in government and private practice. I’m confident he’ll be a champion for working Americans against red tape and burdensome regulation as Labor Secretary. twitter.com/realDonaldTrum…
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Here are three things to know about Eugene Scalia.
1. Prior Labor Department Service
President George W. Bush nominated Scalia to be the solicitor of the Labor Department in April 2001. The solicitor is the chief legal officer of the Labor Department with responsibility over litigation and for advising the labor secretary.
But Bush faced a Democrat-controlled Senate during his first two years in office. Some of the Democrats’ opposition to Eugene Scalia stemmed from the Bush v. Gore Supreme Court ruling that settled the contested 2000 presidential election, in which Antonin Scalia was among the justices ruling in Bush’s favor.
There reportedly could have been enough moderate Democrats to confirm Scalia with a majority vote, but then-Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said he would block a vote because Scalia lacked the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster.
Daschle claimed Scalia had a “record of hostility toward worker protections.” Then-Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., said Scalia lacked the “necessary empathy for workers.”
As a lawyer, Scalia litigated against federal ergonomic regulations pushed by the Clinton administration’s Labor Department in the 1990s. Ergonomics is the study of health and efficiency in the workplace, and the ergonomics regulation was aimed at reducing repetitive stress syndrome.
After Senate Democrats stalled the nomination, Bush made a recess appointment of Scalia in January 2002, and he held the position, succeeded by Howard Radzley, who was confirmed in December 2003. Recess appointments are temporary, but can last up to two years.
2. Prior Administrations’ Experience
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