Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2016 April 28

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April 28

Acting US Attorney

The United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio has no incumbent US attorney; the position is held by Benjamin C. Glassman, Acting U.S. Attorney. "Acting U.S. Attorney"? How does one become an Acting U.S. Attorney? Is this merely a recess appointment (i.e. the president appoints the attorney, and he's Acting until confirmed by the Senate), or is the Acting position appointed by the Attorney General or some lesser position? Nyttend (talk) 03:18, 28 April 2016 (UTC)

It's not a recess appointment (a recess appointment would make the appointed individual the U.S. Attorney - not acting). The acting U.S. attorney is almost always the district's First Assistant U.S. Attorney, who is essentially the #2 person in the office (i.e., the U.S. Attorney's chief lieutenant). The First Assistant is a senior Assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSA), which is a career civil-service type position. When the U.S. Attorney position is vacant, the First Assistant typically takes on the role as an acting (interim) basis until the president can appoint (with the advice and consent of the Senate) a U.S. Attorney.

See Section 3-2.150 of the U.S. Department of Justice's U.S. Attorneys' Manual:

Title 5, United States Code, Section 3345(a)(1) provides that the First Assistant United States Attorney shall serve as the Acting United States Attorney when a Presidentially-appointed United States Attorney either dies, resigns, or is unable to serve. The First Assistant United States Attorney generally may not serve in that acting capacity for more than 210 days beginning on the date the vacancy occurs, but the President’s submission of a nomination for the office to the Senate may, depending on the circumstances, extend the period of the acting officer’s service. See 5 U.S.C. § 3346.

Title 28, United States Code, Section 546 authorizes the Attorney General to appoint a United States Attorney on an interim basis for the district in which the office of the United States Attorney is vacant. An individual appointed by the Attorney General to serve as the United States Attorney may serve either until a Presidential appointment pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 541 takes effect, or for a period of 120 days after appointment by the Attorney General, whichever occurs earlier. If the Attorney General’s appointment expires without a Presidential appointment, the district court may appoint a United States Attorney until the vacancy is filled. See 28 U.S.C. § 546(d).

Section 3345 and Section 546 operate independently. Accordingly, senior officials in the Office of the Attorney General, the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, and EOUSA will determine whether to recommend that the Attorney General appoint a United States Attorney pursuant to Section 546 or whether the First Assistant United States Attorney will automatically serve as the Acting United States Attorney by operation of Section 3345(a)(1). An Acting United States Attorney serving pursuant to Section 3345 may receive a subsequent appointment by the Attorney General or the district court pursuant to Section 546.

Neutrality^talk 03:40, 28 April 2016 (UTC)

Religion

not a question we can answer --Jayron32 14:56, 28 April 2016 (UTC)
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.
Hi everyone. I'm starting to learn to navigate this place. It's massive beyond imagination. Nice to meet u all. The deception mentioned in gods word is real and present now. I'm here to ask if you could spread the article written. It's pneikro user name. All witnesses have been kept oblivious to it. It does feel good to be able make a difference and break this. U guys Rock. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Pneikro (talk • contribs) 10:38, 28 April 2016 (UTC) What's your question? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Baseball Bugs (talk • contribs) 10:44, 28 April 2016 (UTC) He doesn't have one, he's just trying to push the sermon on his user page. Ian.thomson (talk) 10:51, 28 April 2016 (UTC) Having a quick scan of the wall of text on the OPs user page leads me to respectfully suggest they might want to see a mental health professional. 131.251.254.154 (talk) 11:02, 28 April 2016 (UTC) We'll be able to make a better judgement when he starts making constructive edits to Wikipedia. Dbfirs 13:44, 28 April 2016 (UTC) just because someone rants about the ACLU, the UN, Lucifer and One world government (he's wrong in thinking it was Communist, though) doesn't mean they're crazy Asmrulz (talk) 13:53, 28 April 2016 (UTC) Who he really needs to see is an English teacher, who could help him break that megillah into reasonably-sized paragraphs. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 13:57, 28 April 2016 (UTC) Well, the user page is gone now, you big meanies. —Tamfang (talk) 23:24, 28 April 2016 (UTC) We might want to refer him to Time Cube, as those two might want to collaborate. StuRat (talk) 17:19, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

Legal citation for a chunk of the US Code

First off — is legal citation the term for what I'm asking about, or do I need a different term? I'm only interested in the citation itself, what I'd write in an offwiki document giving this citation; I don't need to know how to format the {{USC}} template.

17 U.S.C. § 108 provides exceptions to copyright in certain circumstances. Since the meaning of "obsolete" can vary widely, the Code defines its appearance in this section, using the paragraph beginning with "For purposes of this subsection" and ending with "commercial marketplace". The whole section is 17 U.S.C. § 108, the subsection is 17 U.S.C. § 108 (c), and the preceding subsubsection is presumably 17 U.S.C. § 108 (c) (2), but is there a legal citation for just the definition paragraph, to the exclusion of the rest of 17 U.S.C. § 108 (c)? Nyttend (talk) 20:42, 28 April 2016 (UTC)

No doubt a US lawyer will come along and give a more informed answer, but if I remember correctly from (Australian) law school the authority on US legal citation is the Bluebook, which says you should cite US Code sections thusly. --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 09:19, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

You could cite it: "17 U.S.C. § 108(c) (last sentence)", although the "last sentence" parenthetical is not really part of the legal citation proper, but just an explanation of your meaning. You could also cite more specifically to "17 U.S.C. § 108(c)(2)", but that does not exclude the earlier part of paragraph (c)(2) unless you add the parenthetical. John M Baker (talk) 17:02, 29 April 2016 (UTC)