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Senate Confirms David Rasmussen as 30th Secretary of State
Bzerneleg ambassador to Techganet replaces Secretary Catherine Blanco after her resignation

By Bernard Maeterlinck
June 25, 2018 00:13 UTC-2
 

 

 

David Rasmussen's years of service as Chair of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee and Ambassador to Techganet has given him a running start as he becomes the Secretary of State.

BELMONT — David Rasmussen was easily confirmed by the Senate today as Bzerneleg's 30th Secretary of State, elevating the current ambassador to Techganet and a high-ranking foreign policy advisor of the current and many past administrations to be Bzerneleg's top diplomat.

As a popular politician and diplomat among members of Parliament and a close friend of President Blythe and Vice President Underwood, Rasmussen's confirmation was passed unanimously (50-2) after the 10 Senators of the Liberal Party joined a united Republican conference to vote for David Rasmussen's confirmation.

Shortly after the vote, Secretary Rasmussen was escorted to the Supreme Court, just 10 minutes away from the Parliament House, where he was sworn in by Justice Albert Francis Roosevelt. He then returned to the Department of State building at the famous Roosevelt Avenue, home to the Presidential Mansion and many foreign embassies.

Secretary Rasmussen's agenda is already packed in spite of the fact that his term just started, with crucial deadlines in the coming weeks to implement a major restructure of the nation's embassy program after the program was unregulated and without any standards or criteria even though the commencement of the embassy program under Secretary Blanco played a vital role in diplomatic relations with major countries in the South Pacific and enlarge Bzerneleg's diplomatic network in the world.

Senators were mindful of the need to get Secretary Rasmussen in office, given the very huge amount of wok facing him. His confirmation was all assured since the beginning due to the fact that the Republican Party enjoy a supermajority in the Senate (40 out of the 52 seats in the Senate). 
 

 

David Rasmussen worked for former President Thomas Dorsey Jr. from 2013-2016 as National Security Advisor.

As Secretary of State, David Rasmussen will also be charged with enlarging the nation's diplomatic network in The South Pacific, forging new bilateral agreements with other countries and secure the national interest of the country.

Secretary Rasmussen will also have to mend fences with the Bzerneleg ambassador to the World Assembly Marie Morgenthau, whose relationship with former Secretary of State Catherine Blanco was so strained that she ordered Blanco's portrait to removed from the Bzerneleg WA Mission headquarters.

Although a decided hawk and more conservative than much of his staff, Rasmussen's arrival has been greeted with relief at the State Department, which has yet to recover from the tenure of Secretary Blanco, who oversaw the major downsizing of the Department that drove away many of Bzerneleg's experienced diplomats and left behind a disorganized and dysfunctional State Department. 

(This post was last modified: 06-24-2018, 10:13 PM by Bzerneleg.)

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Justice Albert Francis Roosevelt announces retirement from Supreme Court
The longest-serving Justice in Bzerneleg history will retire in July after 42 years of service in the Supreme Court

By Michelle Ball
June 25, 2018 11:00 UTC-2

Albert Francis Roosevelt waits to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing on December 8, 1971.

Justice Albert Francis Roosevelt annnounced last Friday that he will retire from the Supreme Court on July 1 when Justices start their 2 months of summer break, ending the tenure that began in 1971.

Nominated by President Hallaway, a friend of Roosevelt after they both served in the Navy for 5 years before studying law at the University of Rochefort. The nomination drew instant praise from major parties from both sides of the aisle, and Albert Roosevelt was confirmed in a remarkable 4 weeks.

A brand new President, George Hallaway, suddenly had a Supreme Court vacancy to fill, and with the country still reeling from the assassination of President Collins and a major bribery scandal involving multiple members of Parliament and Henry Connor & Co., a Bzerneleg pharmaceutical conglomerate, the name of the game was someone of no political connections and of unassailable credentials.

President Hallaway assigned his Attorney General, Herbert Mitchell, to do the screening. And Attorney General Mitchell, the former President of the Bzerneleg Bar Association, quickly fixed his eye on the then-Chief Justice of the State of Belfort Albert Roosevelt, a man with decades of experience in law and service in the judiciary.

Shortly after entering office, Justice Roosevelt earned a reputation for independence and impartiality as well as for his quality work. Roosevelt almost always wrote a dissenting opinion when in dissent and wrote concurring opinions more often than most other Justices.
 

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A portrait of Justice Albert Francis Roosevelt with the Medal of Honour in the Supreme Court building.

Over the years, Justice Roosevelt authored 476 majority opinions for the Supreme Court on almost every issue imaginable, from immigration to abortion, from gay marriage to capital punishment, from freedom of speech to the relationship between the federal and state governments.

The most monumental decisions Justice Roosevelt is likely to be remembered for, though, are those he authored on the gay marriage and presidential power.

Justice Albert Francis Roosevelt wrote the Supreme Court's 6-3 decision requiring states to license a marriage between two people of the same sex and recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when lawfully licensed and performed in another state.

And in 2010, Justice Roosevelt authored the Court's 7-2 decision, overturning President Thomas Dorsey Jr.'s Executive Order 13901, which raised the federal minimum wage. He indicated that the executive branch did not have the power unilaterally to raise the federal minimum wage.

Dorsey Jr. wasn't the only President to feel Justice Roosevelt's sting. Roosevelt also wrote the decision for a unanimous court in Blythe v. Internal Revenue Administration, refusing to stay the IRA's tax evasion lawsuit against President William Jefferson Blythe. In summarizing the decision from the bench in 1998, Justice Roosevelt dismissed the notion that the lawsuit would burden the presidency.

As Justice Roosevelt put it, "If the President had time to play golf, he had time to defend a lawsuit." And indeed, as it turned out, the case led to the impeachment of President William Blythe. It was seen for many as an example of the highest value in the Bzerne legal system — that no person is above the law.

"It is with sadness to hear of the retirement of Associate Justice Albert Francis Roosevelt. His remarkable 42 years of service in the Supreme Court and for this country will always be remembered. Throughout his historic career in the Supreme Court, he never stopped working to uphold and defend our Constitution and our laws. While some simply bore witness to history, Justice Roosevelt shaped it and strove to ensure that justice is upheld in this great country."

- Vice President Francis J. Underwood
   

(This post was last modified: 06-27-2018, 04:36 AM by Bzerneleg.)

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