Independent Counsel Law

This volume is a compilation of the U.S. federal special prosecutor/independent counsel investigations spanning the complete twenty-one year tenure from 1978-1999 of the independent counsel statute. The entries include individuals who have served as investigators; those who have been targets of investigations; all attorney generals who have called for appointment of special prosecutors; all presidents during whose terms of office such prosecutors served; and all legal cases that served to argue for or against the constitutionality of the independent counsel statute. These historical precedents are traced from Ulysses Grant's appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the St. Louis Whiskey Scandal in 1875. More contemporary cases include Watergate, precipitated by Richard Nixon's "Saturday Night Massacre" dismissal of Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox in 1973; Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh's Iran-Contra Investigation; and Special Prosecutor Ken Starr's Whitewater investigation of the Clintons and,the ensuing permutations which brought individuals like Linda Tripp and Monica Lewinsky to prominence and also brought the statute calling for such investigations into constitutional debate.

This is an inside look at the principal decision makers and the major legal and constitutional decisions made in the Department of Justice under Attorney General Edwin Meese. Kmiec, former assistant attorney general in charge of the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), offers a fascinating chronicle and analysis of the significant issues addressed during and since the Reagan years. These include the controversy over methods of constitutional interpretation; the legitimacy of independent counsels; efforts by the president to control executive agencies and to keep Congress in check; family issues, including abortion, AIDS, limitations on pornography, and school choice; quotas, affirmative action, and civil rights; the Iran-Contra affair; and more.

The two decades since the Watergate scandal have seen an unprecedented focus on ethics in government. The public integrity scandals of the Clinton administration have, once again, focused national attention on ethics in Washington. This work addresses this very topical subject and the authors come to some unusual conclusions. Tracing the origins of the modern public integrity war back to the very birth of the nation, the authors explain how conservatives and progressives have used allegations of unethical conduct in an effort to persuade the American public to accept their respective visions for American society. A cynical public, anesthetized to the distinction between actual wrongdoing and partisan attack, follows ideology and self-interest rather than character, allowing politicians to get away with even the most egregious conduct.

The greatest threat to the future of the American presidency may turn on whether Bill Clinton lied under oath. But the media's voyeuristic prurience has obscured the very real matters at the heart of the Starr investigation.

In Sexual McCarthyism, Alan Dershowitz addresses the issues that transcend more headlines, their long-term importance and possible effects.