Clinton Era Federal Judge Resigns Over DOJ's Policy on Discovery

[Alyosha]

I'm sure only 3 of us care about this, but...

http://news.yahoo.com/prominent-u-ju...192212883.html

Rakoff, nominated to the bench by U.S. President Bill Clinton, has been a frequent thorn in the side of the Justice Department and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, criticizing their efforts in pursuing Wall Street for financial crisis-era wrongdoing.The forensic commission was created in 2013 to help establish national standards, in response to persistent concerns from critics about the quality of evidence used to convict defendants across the country.
In October, the commission's subcommittee on reporting and testimony, co-chaired by Rakoff, recommended to the full commission that prosecutors go beyond current federal criminal rules to provide additional details about scientific expert witnesses' methodology and data to defendants.
The proposal, according to Rakoff, would impose on prosecutors essentially the same requirements that now exist in civil cases.
But the commission was not allowed to consider the merits of the report, after Deputy U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates determined its duties did not include making recommendations about changes to discovery, the process by which adversaries exchange evidence before trial, Rakoff said.
The decision, he wrote in the letter, appeared to be "designed to preserve a courtroom advantage by avoiding even the possibility that commission discussion might expose it as unfair."

[Peter1469]

The treatment of expert witnesses in military criminal trials was at the standard in Federal civilian trials.

I am surprised that the commission didn't have more organic power. The commission and the judge could always try to lobby Congress for a legislative fix.

I have worked with a lot of US attorneys, in the government procurement world and as a Special US Assistant Attorney. From my experience the line attorneys are 90% great, but the political appointees are well political.