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Sally Yates

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Sally Yates
United States Attorney General
Acting
In office
January 20, 2017 – January 30, 2017
PresidentDonald Trump
Preceded byLoretta Lynch
Succeeded byDana J. Boente (acting)
United States Deputy Attorney General
In office
January 10, 2015 – January 30, 2017
PresidentBarack Obama
Donald Trump
Preceded byJames Cole
Succeeded byRod J. Rosenstein (nominee)
United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia
In office
March 10, 2010 – January 10, 2015
PresidentBarack Obama
Preceded byDavid Nahmias
Succeeded byJohn Horn
Personal details
Born
Sally Caroline Quillian

(1960-08-20) August 20, 1960 (age 63)
Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
EducationUniversity of Georgia (BA, JD)

Sally Quillian Yates (born August 20, 1960) is an American lawyer. She served as a United States Attorney and later United States Deputy Attorney General, having been appointed to both positions by President Barack Obama. She then served as Acting United States Attorney General from January 20, 2017, until her dismissal by President Donald Trump on January 30, 2017, following her order to the Justice Department not to defend Trump's immigration-related executive order in court.[1][2]

Early life and education

Yates was born in Atlanta, Georgia to J. Kelley Quillian, an attorney and judge who served as a judge on Georgia Court of Appeals between 1966 and 1984, and Xara Terrell Quillian. [3] She attended the University of Georgia, receiving her B.A. degree in journalism in 1982. In 1986, she earned a J.D. from the University of Georgia School of Law, graduating magna cum laude. While in law school, Yates served as the executive editor of the Georgia Law Review.[4][5]

Career

From 1985 to 1989, Yates practiced with the law firm King & Spalding in Atlanta. In 1989, she was hired as Assistant U.S. Attorney by Bob Barr for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia.[6] In 1994, she became Chief of the Fraud and Public Corruption Section. She was the lead prosecutor in the case of Olympic Park bomber Eric Rudolph,[7] a terrorist convicted for a series of anti-abortion and anti-gay bombings across the southern United States between 1996 and 1998, which killed two people and injured over 120 others.[8] She rose to First Assistant U.S. Attorney in 2002 and to Acting U.S. Attorney in 2004.

President Obama nominated Yates to be U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of Georgia. She was confirmed by the Senate on March 10, 2010.[6] During her time as a U.S. Attorney, Yates was appointed by Attorney General Eric Holder to serve as Vice Chair of the Attorney General's Advisory Committee.[6]

Deputy Attorney General

On May 13, 2015, the United States Senate voted 84–12 to confirm Yates as Deputy Attorney General of the United States, the second-highest-ranking position in the Justice Department.[9][10] Yates served under Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who took office shortly before Yates's confirmation.[5][11]

As Deputy Attorney General, Yates was responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Justice Department, which included approximately 113,000 employees. In 2015, she authored the policy, known as the "Yates memo" prioritizing the prosecution of executives for corporate crimes.[12][13]

Acting United States Attorney General

In January 2017, according to a Justice Department spokesman, Yates accepted a request from the incoming Trump Administration to serve as Acting Attorney General, beginning on January 20, 2017, and until the successor for Attorney General Lynch can be confirmed by the United States Senate.[14]

On January 30, 2017, Yates ordered the Justice Department not to defend Trump's Executive Order "Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States", saying "At present, I am not convinced that the defense of the executive order is consistent with these responsibilities of the Department of Justice, nor am I convinced that the executive order is lawful".[15][16][17] In response to her decision not to defend the Order, former Attorney General Eric Holder tweeted he trusted her judgment.[18]

Later that day, via hand-delivered letter, the Trump administration fired Yates, replacing her with Dana Boente, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.[19][12] In a White House statement, Yates was claimed to have "betrayed the Department of Justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States."[20]

File:Sally Yates Questioned by Jeff Sessions.webm
Senator Sessions questions Yates in her confirmation hearing[21]

Reactions to dismissal

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called Yates's actions "a profile in courage. It was a brave act and a right act," while Rep. John Conyers criticized her firing: "If dedicated government officials deem [Trump's] directives to be unlawful and unconstitutional, he will simply fire them as if government is a reality show."[22]

Law professor Jonathan Adler claimed, however, that "Yates did not claim she was convinced the order was unlawful, but only that it was not "wise or just"." Saying that he was "not aware of any instance in which the Justice Department has refused to defend a presumptively lawful executive action on this basis," he argued that Yates should have resigned.[23] (Yates is reported to have considered resigning, but said she did not want to leave her successor facing the same question.)[24]

The editors of National Review said her defiance of the executive order was "inappropriate", since Yates was unelected and "every official in the Justice Department knows, if one disagrees with the law one is called upon to apply, or the policy one is bound to enforce, one is free to resign."[25]

The New York Times and others drew comparisons to U.S. President Richard Nixon's dismissal of special prosecutor Archibald Cox in the Saturday Night Massacre and "some cable networks"[26] began calling Yates's dismissal the "Monday Night Massacre".[27][26][28]

Personal life

Her husband is Comer Yates.[29] The couple have two children.[30]

References

  1. ^ CNN, Evan Perez and Jeremy Diamond. "Trump fires acting AG after she declines to defend travel ban". {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  2. ^ Landler, Mark; Apuzzo, Matt; Lichtblau, Eric (January 30, 2017). "Trump Fires Acting Attorney General". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 30, 2017.
  3. ^ "J. Kelley Quillian, 1966-1984 Chief Judge: 1981-1982". Georgia Court of Appeals. Retrieved January 30, 2017.
  4. ^ Bill, David (December 23, 2014). "UGA law graduate Sally Yates nominated for U.S. deputy attorney general | UGA Today". UGA Today.
  5. ^ a b Watkins, Eli (January 30, 2017). "Who is Sally Yates?". CNN. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
  6. ^ a b c Jeffries, Fran (December 21, 2014). "Report: Sally Yates is Obama's pick for deputy attorney general". Atlanta Journal Constitution.
  7. ^ Horwitz, Sari (December 21, 2014). "Sally Yates said to be Obama's nominee for Justice Department's second in command". Washington Post.
  8. ^ "#477: 10-14-98 ERIC RUDOLPH CHARGED IN CENTENNIAL OLYMPIC PARK BOMBING". www.justice.gov. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
  9. ^ "Senate Floor Proceedings" (PDF). United States Senate Periodical Press Gallerhy. May 13, 2015. p. 18. Retrieved September 12, 2016.
  10. ^ Horwitz, Sari (May 17, 2015). "New deputy attorney general: 'We're not the Department of Prosecutions'". Washington Post. Retrieved January 30, 2017.
  11. ^ "Loretta Lynch Is Sworn In as Attorney General". New York Times. Retrieved April 27, 2015.
  12. ^ a b "Who is Sally Yates? Meet the acting attorney general Trump fired for 'betraying' the Justice Department". Washington Post. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
  13. ^ https://www.lw.com/thoughtLeadership/lw-yates-memo-enforcement-actions-prioritize-individuals
  14. ^ Gerstein, Josh (January 17, 2017). "Trump will allow U.S. attorneys to stay past Friday". Politico. Retrieved January 18, 2017.
  15. ^ "Letter From Sally Yates". January 30, 2017 – via NYTimes.com.
  16. ^ Apuzzo, Mark Landler, Matt; Lichtblau, Eric (January 30, 2017). "Trump Fires Acting Attorney General" – via NYTimes.com.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  17. ^ "Acting Attorney General declares Justice Department won't defend Trump's immigration order". Washington Post. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
  18. ^ "Trump fires acting attorney general in rift over immigration order". USA TODAY. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
  19. ^ "Trump fires acting Attorney General who defied him on immigration".
  20. ^ "Trump fires Justice Department lawyer Sally Yates over immigration order". Financial Review. January 31, 2017.
  21. ^ "Senator Sessions Advising Sally Yates to Disobey Improper Presidential Orders". C-SPAN.org. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
  22. ^ Gerstein, Josh (January 30, 2017). "Trump fires defiant acting attorney general". POLITICO. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
  23. ^ Adler, Jonathan (January 30, 2017). "Acting attorney general orders Justice Department attorneys not to defend immigration executive order [UPDATED]". Washington Post.
  24. ^ "Trump Fires Acting Attorney General Who Defied Him". New York Times. January 30, 2017. {{cite news}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter |authors= (help)
  25. ^ The Editors (January 30, 2017). "Why Yates Had to Go". National Review. Retrieved January 31, 2017. {{cite news}}: |last1= has generic name (help)
  26. ^ a b Ben Jacobs (January 30, 2017). "Monday night massacre?". The Guardian. Already commentators are comparing Sally Yates's firing to the so-called Saturday Night Massacre of 1973. However, what some cable networks are calling "the Monday night massacre" doesn't quite measure up to that notorious night in the Nixon administration.
  27. ^ "Trump Fires Acting Attorney General Who Defied Him". New York Times. January 30, 2017. The decision by the acting attorney general is a remarkable rebuke by a government official to a sitting president that recalls the dramatic "Saturday Night Massacre" in 1973, when President Richard M. Nixon fired his attorney general and deputy attorney general for refusing to dismiss the special prosecutor in the Watergate case. {{cite news}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter |authors= (help)
  28. ^ Apuzzo, Mark Landler, Michael D. Shear, Matt; Lichtblau, Eric (January 30, 2017). "Trump Fires Acting Attorney General Who Defied Him". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 31, 2017.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  29. ^ Grossman, Andrew; Barrett, Devlin (December 21, 2014). "Obama to Nominate Atlanta U.S. Attorney Yates to No. 2 Justice Department Job". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved January 31, 2017. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |subscription= ignored (|url-access= suggested) (help)
  30. ^ "Meet the Deputy Attorney General | DAG | Department of Justice". www.justice.gov. Archived from the original on January 31, 2017. Retrieved January 31, 2017. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sally Yates.
Legal offices
Preceded by United States Deputy Attorney General
2015–2017 		Succeeded by
Preceded by United States Attorney General
Acting
2017 		Succeeded by
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