Judge Removes Trump's Interior Official For Serving Illegally

In June 2020, we wrote about the Interior Department appointing acting directors and circumventing the Senate approval process.  A federal judge has caught on and stopped one of them.

A federal judge ruled [September 25, 2020] that Trump’s leading steward of public lands has been serving unlawfully, blocking him from continuing in the position....

U.S. Interior Department Bureau of Land Management acting director William Perry Pendley served unlawfully for 424 days without being confirmed to the post by the Senate as required under the Constitution....

The ruling came after Montana’s Democratic governor in July sued to remove Pendley, saying the former oil industry attorney was illegally overseeing an agency that manages almost a quarter-billion acres of land....

The Bureau of Land Management & the National Park Service have had "acting" directors that could stay on forever effectively bypassing the Constitutional process of Senate confirmation and allowing the appointment of unqualified hacks.  One has been stopped; others still thrive.

The agency will abide by the judge’s order while the appeal is pending, officials said. It will also have to confront questions over the legitimacy of all decisions Pendley had made, including his approval of land use plans in Montana that Morris said Pendley was not authorized to make.

“Today’s ruling is a win for the Constitution, the rule of law, and our public lands,” Gov. Steve Bullock said Friday. Environmental groups and Democratic lawmakers from Western states also cheered the judge’s move after urging for months that Pendley be removed.

This story of course doesn't exist in the mainstream media due to our unending insanity, but it's wild that this presidency has effectively destroyed Congressional oversight.

Pendley has been one of several senior officials in the Trump administration running federal agencies and departments despite not having gone before the Senate for the confirmation hearings that are required for top posts.

Pendley had been formally nominated by Trump to direct the land bureau in July, after being given temporary authorizations to the acting position several times by Interior Secretary David Bernhardt.  But the nomination was withdrawn earlier this month after the confirmation process threatened to become contentious.... Pendley continued to hang on to the post despite the withdrawal, under an arrangement that Pendley himself set up months ago. In a May 22 order, Pendley made his own position, deputy director, the bureau’s top post while the director’s office is vacant.

Re-read that bolded sentence again.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Sources: 

https://apnews.com/article/billings-montana-archive-only-on-ap-472201d09bc69de32fbf3e110c094fa6

http://smartdissent.com/article/trump-swamp-interior-dept-keeping-acting-directors-office-without