Senate Confirms Loretta Lynch as Attorney General 166 Days After Nomination

Student Blog

Title:  Senate Confirms Loretta Lynch as Attorney General 166 Days After Nomination

Source:  http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/senate-confirms-loretta-lynch-attorney-general-166-days/story?id=30527905

Author of Article:  Arlette Saenz

Date:  April 23, 2015

Blog by:  Drewv Magan

The Senate narrowly approved Obama’s nominee for Attorney General, Loretta Lynch.  President Obama originally nominated Lynch back in November 2014.  It took the Senate 166 days to confirm the North Carolina native.  In a tight vote, 56-43 (Senator Ted Cruz was absent), the first African American woman was confirmed as the country’s newest Attorney General.  

Many Senate Democrats felt that the majority led Senate put her nomination on the back burner.  However, the Senate Republicans say that the President’s executive immigration action and an anti-human trafficking bill took priority over Lynch.  

President Obama was excited about her confirmation today and said that “America will be better off it.”  He also stated that as head of the Justice Department she will oversee many different areas including, counter-terrorism, voting rights, public corruption, white collar crimes and much more.  

This relates to what we are currently studying because the Attorney General’s Office (also known as the Department of Justice) is a Cabinet position in which the President nominates a person and the Senate confirms him or her.  That is exactly what happened here.  Obama chose Lynch because she had some of the same ideologies as he.  The Senate carefully examined and questioned her record and past decisions before confirming her.  This is a great example of how our checks and balances system works.