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May 04, 2019 @ 16:01:43
From PEER (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility)
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE ACCUSED OF ILLEGAL APPOINTMENT
Posted on Apr 17, 2019
On April 15, 2019, the NPS installed David Vela as its “Acting” Deputy Director of Operations. This happened through the April 12 appointment made by another NPS Deputy Director, P. Daniel Smith.
However, Deputy Director Smith lacks the legal authority to appoint Mr. Vela into that position according to PEER’s complaint. Under the Park Service’s foundational statute, only a Senate-confirmed Director can appoint the Deputy Director of Operations position (54 U.S. Code § 100302). In an all-employee email announcing the Vela appointment, Deputy Director Smith said in making the appointment he was “exercising the authority of the Director.” Yet, Mr. Smith has never himself been appointed as the Director – whether “acting” or otherwise – and President Trump has not named a permanent nominee for that prominent position.
A January 29, 2019, Order, “Temporary Redelegation of Authority” from then Acting Secretary of the Interior DAVID BERNHARDT, allows lesser political appointees such as Mr. Smith to occupy higher jobs, but Section 4 of that Order specifically delegates “only those functions or duties that are not required by statute or regulation to be performed only by the Senate-confirmed official occupying the position.”
https://www.peer.org/news/press-releases/national-park-service-accused-of-illegal-appointment.html
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May 04, 2019 @ 16:00:18
Mesa Verde denies access to horse roundup
Access to federal government actions is a First Amendment right, court says
By Jim Mimiaga Journal Staff Writer
Monday, April 29, 2019
Park Superintendent Cliff Spencer banned media coverage of the roundup in an email April 24
“If a government agency restricts public access, the media’s only recourse is the court system,” the appeals court said. “The free press is the guardian of the public interest, and the independent judiciary is the guardian of the free press.
Thus, courts have a duty to conduct a thorough and searching review of any attempt to restrict public access.”
https://the-journal.com/articles/136712
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