Rachel Brand

Rachel Lee Brand (born May 1, 1973) is an American lawyer, academic, and former government official. She served as the United States Associate Attorney General from May 22, 2017, until February 20, 2018, when she resigned to take a job as head of global corporate governance at Walmart.[2][3] Brand was the first woman to serve as Associate Attorney General.[4] She also served as Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Policy in the George W. Bush administration and was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve on the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. Prior to becoming Associate Attorney General, Brand was an associate professor at Antonin Scalia Law School.[5][6]

Rachel Brand
United States Associate Attorney General
In office
May 22, 2017 – February 20, 2018
PresidentDonald Trump
Preceded byJesse Panuccio (acting)
Succeeded byJesse Panuccio (acting)
Member of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board
In office
August 2012 – February 2017
Nominated byBarack Obama
Preceded byFrancis X. Taylor[1]
Succeeded byJane Nitze (nominee)
United States Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Policy
In office
March 28, 2005 – July 9, 2007
Acting: March 28, 2005 – July 28, 2005
PresidentGeorge W. Bush
Preceded byDaniel Bryant
Succeeded byElisebeth Cook
Personal details
Born
Rachel Lee Brand

(1973-05-01) May 1, 1973
Muskegon, Michigan, U.S.
Spouse(s)Jonathan Cohn
Children2
EducationUniversity of Minnesota Morris (BA)
Harvard University (JD)

Career

Early career

Brand was born in Muskegon, Michigan, and raised in Pella, Iowa,[7][8][4] where she attended Pella Christian High School.[9] Brand studied at the University of Minnesota Morris from 1991 to 1995, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. She then attended Harvard Law School, where she was deputy editor-in-chief of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy. She graduated in 1998 with a J.D. cum laude.[10] After graduating, Brand clerked for Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Justice Charles Fried in 1998–1999 and for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy in 2002–2003.[11] In 1999, she also served as General Counsel for Elizabeth Dole's presidential exploratory committee.[10] From 1999 to 2000, Brand worked at the firm Cooper, Carvin, & Rosenthal, now known as Cooper & Kirk.[12]

Bush administration (2000–2007)
Brand's official photo during the Bush administration

Brand was part of the legal team representing George W. Bush during the 2000 United States presidential election recount in Florida,[13] and also served briefly as associate counsel in Bush's transition team.[10] Brand later served as President Bush's assistant counsel and associate counsel.[14][15] Beginning in 2003,[10] she served as an Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Policy in the George W. Bush administration where she helped shepherd the Supreme Court nominations of John Roberts and Samuel Alito.[13] Brand's portfolio also included shaping the administration's position on reauthorization of the Patriot Act,[16] in which capacity she testified before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary on the benefits of using administrative subpoenas in terrorism investigations.[17]

During her tenure at the Justice Department, Brand was tangentially involved in the controversy surrounding Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's dismissal of several United States Attorneys. She was floated by the department's leadership as a top candidate to replace Margaret Chiara, who was ousted as part of the purge.[18] Brand ultimately declined the position, however, and resigned from the Department of Justice in June 2007.[19]

After leaving the Justice Department, Brand worked for three years at WilmerHale.[4] In 2008, John McCain, then a candidate for the Republican Party's presidential nomination, named Brand to his Justice Advisory Committee, which would have recommended judicial nominees to McCain were he elected.[20]

Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (2012–2017)

In 2012, Brand was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve on the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB).[21] She was confirmed on August 2, 2012 to a term ending January 29, 2017.[22]

Brand dissented from several recommendations included in the PCLOB's 2014 report on NSA's bulk metadata collection program under section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act. She declined to join in the Board's view that the program was illegal as a statutory matter and argued that, in policy terms, it struck a justifiable balance between privacy and national security and, as such, should not be discontinued.[23] The Board, for its part, had recommended the program's termination.[24]

Associate Attorney General (2017–2018)
Rachel Brand being sworn in as the United States Associate Attorney General by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

On February 1, 2017, President Donald Trump nominated Brand to be United States Associate Attorney General.[25] Her appointment was confirmed 52–46 by the U.S. Senate on May 18, 2017,[26] and she was sworn in on May 22, 2017.

The reauthorization of the 702 section of the surveillance law was a job assignment of the subject according to CNN.[27] Combating human trafficking was one of Brand's stated priorities as Associate Attorney General.[28][29] At the Department of Justice, Brand authored a memorandum entitled "Limiting Use of Agency Guidance Documents In Affirmative Civil Enforcement Cases," which was called the "Brand memo". The document forbade DOJ litigators from bringing enforcement actions based on unenforceable guidance documents.[30]

On February 9, 2018, the New York Times reported that Brand, along with her assistant Currie Gunn, had resigned from the Justice Department. The New York Times indicated that Brand oversaw "a wide swath of the Justice Department" and helped lead the department's effort to extend Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act that "authorizes the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance program."[3][31]

Walmart

On February 12, 2018, NBC News reported that Brand had quit the Justice Department over fear she might be asked to oversee the Russia probe and had taken a position with Walmart as EVP of Global Governance and Corporate Secretary.[2][32] As executive vice president of global governance, chief legal officer, and corporate secretary, Brand is in charge of the legal department, global ethics, compliance, and investigations.[29][33]

Other professional activities

Brand has served as Chief Counsel for Regulatory Litigation at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.[34] As Chief Counsel with the Chamber, Brand was on the brief for respondent Noel Canning in the landmark Supreme Court decision NLRB v. Noel Canning.[35]

Brand formerly served as the chairman of the Federalist Society's Litigation Practice Group and as co-chair of the American Bar Association Administrative Law Section's Government Information and Right to Privacy Committee.[36]

Policy positions
Brand speaks in 2018 on the Department of Justice's efforts to combat human trafficking

In 2015, Brand expressed support for revised guidelines issued by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, arguing that they represented a welcome shift in the intelligence community away from what she termed its historical "reflexive secrecy."[37] She has also suggested that the National Security Agency ought to develop a set of guidelines beyond the Fair Information Practice Principles—which she alleges are insufficient in the intelligence-gathering context—to govern its own approach to privacy.[38]

In a 2008 publication of the Heritage Foundation, Brand argued against, and proposed various solutions to, what she termed the "over-federalization" of criminal law in the United States.[39]

gollark: Weird.
gollark: ++remind 24h3m >daily
gollark: ++remind 3m >daily
gollark: >daily
gollark: CESAE this.

References
  1. "Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board: New Independent Agency Status" (PDF). Garrett Hatch. August 27, 2012. Retrieved December 30, 2018.
  2. Bryan, Logan (February 9, 2018). "The person next in line to oversee the Mueller investigation suddenly stepped down". Business Insider. Retrieved September 4, 2018.
  3. Katie Benner (February 9, 2018). "No. 3 Official at the Justice Department Is Stepping Down". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 9, 2018. Retrieved February 9, 2018.
  4. Horwitz, Sari (May 28, 2017). "Former Bush official Rachel Brand takes over No. 3 position at Justice Dept". Washington Post. Archived from the original on June 1, 2017. Retrieved June 7, 2017.
  5. washingtonpost.com: Third-highest ranking official at the Justice Department stepping down
  6. http://www.justice.gov: Associate Attorney General to Leave Justice Department for Private Sector
  7. "United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary Questionnaire for Nominees to Privacy and Civil Liberties Board" (PDF). U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 14, 2017. Retrieved June 16, 2017.
  8. Henderson, O. Kay (May 18, 2017). "Iowa native now #3 at U.S. Department of Justice". Radio Iowa. Archived from the original on May 18, 2017. Retrieved June 16, 2017.
  9. Ernst, Joni (March 7, 2017). Introduction of Rachel Brand (Speech). Hearing on Rod Rosenstein and Rachel Brand Nominations before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Washington, DC. Archived from the original on September 2, 2017.
  10. Brand, Rachel L. (May 12, 2005). Biographical Information (Public) (PDF) (Speech). Confirmation Hearing on the Nominations of Rachel L. Brand, Alice S. Fisher, and Regina B. Schofield to be Assistant Attorneys General (Hearing before the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, 109th Congress, 1st Session). Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 21, 2016. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
  11. "Rachel Brand Former Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Policy United States Department of Justice". The White House. Archived from the original on February 16, 2017. Retrieved February 15, 2017.
  12. Milbank, Dana (January 30, 2001). "White House Counsel Office Now Full of Clinton Legal Foes". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on July 31, 2017. Retrieved May 18, 2017.
  13. Shenon, Philip (June 16, 2017). "The Obscure Lawyer Who Might Become the Most Powerful Woman in Washington". Politico. Archived from the original on June 30, 2017. Retrieved June 19, 2017.
  14. Milbank, Dana (January 30, 2001). "White House Counsel Office Now Full of Clinton Legal Foes". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 3, 2019.
  15. "Scarramucci and other alumni among Trump's recent appointees". Harvard Law Today. July 26, 2017. Retrieved May 3, 2019.
  16. Goldstein, Amy (June 30, 2007). "Bush Is Told to Justify Executive Privilege". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on August 4, 2017. Retrieved August 4, 2017.
  17. Brand, Rachel (June 22, 2004). Testimony of Rachel Brand (PDF) (Speech). Hearing before the United States Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security: "Tools to Fight Terrorism: Subpoena Authority and Pretrial Detention of Terrorists". Washington, DC. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 7, 2017. Retrieved August 4, 2017.
  18. Shane, Scott (April 14, 2007). "Political Résumé, Not Court, Stood Out for a Contender". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 4, 2017. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
  19. "Justice Department Official Resigns". The New York Times. Associated Press. June 30, 2007. Archived from the original on August 4, 2017. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
  20. Eilperin, Juliet (May 7, 2009). "McCain Says He Would Put Conservatives on Supreme Court". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 4, 2017.
  21. Hendrickson, Dan (February 1, 2017). "Iowan Nominated To Serve In Trump Justice Department". NBC 13. Archived from the original on February 16, 2017. Retrieved February 15, 2017.
  22. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (January 23, 2014). Report on the Telephone Records Program Conducted under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act and on the Operations of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (PDF) (Report). p. 3, fn. 12. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 28, 2017. Retrieved August 4, 2017.
  23. Brand, Rachel (January 23, 2014). "Annex A: Separate Statement by Board Member Rachel Brand" (PDF). Report on the Telephone Records Program Conducted under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act and on the Operations of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (Report). pp. 209–13. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 28, 2017. Retrieved August 4, 2017.
  24. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (January 23, 2014). Report on the Telephone Records Program Conducted under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act and on the Operations of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (PDF) (Report). pp. 16–17. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 28, 2017. Retrieved August 4, 2017.
  25. Goetz, Ethan (February 8, 2017). "Locals, friends comment on Rachel Brand nomination for associate attorney general". Oskaloosa Herald. The Pella Chronicle. Retrieved February 15, 2017.
  26. Cohen, Kelly (May 18, 2017). "Senate confirms Rachel Brand as associate attorney general". Washington Examiner. Archived from the original on May 18, 2017. Retrieved May 18, 2017.
  27. Jarrett, Laura. (January 19, 2018). "Meet the Justice Department's FISA closer." CNN website Archived February 4, 2018, at the Wayback Machine
  28. Gurman, Sadie (February 9, 2018). "No. 3 Justice Department official Rachel Brand stepping down amid turmoil". The Associated Press. Retrieved May 3, 2019.
  29. Viswanatha, Aruna; Wilber, Del Quentin (February 9, 2018). "Rachel Brand Stepping Down as Justice Department's No. 3". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved May 3, 2019.
  30. "DOJ Updates its Justice Manual to Include Section Limiting Use of Guidance Documents in Litigation". National Law Review. January 7, 2019. Retrieved May 3, 2019.
  31. "Opinion | The government's ability to fight terrorism is in peril". Washington Post. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
  32. "Top DOJ official quit partly over fear she might be asked to oversee Russia probe". NBC News. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
  33. Reisinger, Sue (December 14, 2018). "No. 3 Justice Department official Rachel Brand stepping down amid turmoil". Law.com. Retrieved May 3, 2019.
  34. "U.S. Chamber's Litigation Center Names Rachel Brand Chief Counsel for Regulatory Litigation and Kate Comerford Todd Chief Counsel for Appellate Litigation". U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Archived from the original on March 29, 2017. Retrieved March 28, 2017.
  35. NLRB v. Noel Canning, docket no. 12-1281 (Supreme Court of the United States). Brief of Respondent Noel Canning Archived August 4, 2017, at the Wayback Machine.
  36. "Rachel Brand". Scalia Law School. Archived from the original on February 16, 2017. Retrieved May 18, 2017.
  37. Brand, Rachel (November 2, 2015). "Transparency in the Intelligence Community". Lawfare. Archived from the original on August 4, 2017. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
  38. Brand, Rachel (November 25, 2014). "Memo to NSA: Stop Saying You Apply the FIPPs". Lawfare. Archived from the original on August 4, 2017. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
  39. Brand, Rachel (August 29, 2008). "Making It a Federal Case: An Inside View of the Pressures to Federalize Crime". Legal Memorandum (30): 1. Archived from the original on August 4, 2017. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
Legal offices
Preceded by
Daniel Bryant		 United States Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Policy
2005–2007		 Succeeded by
Elisebeth Cook
Preceded by
Tony West		 United States Associate Attorney General
2017–2018		 Vacant
Government offices
Preceded by
Francis X. Taylor [1]		 Member of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board
2012–2017		 Succeeded by
Jane Nitze
  1. "Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board: New Independent Agency Status" (PDF). Garrett Hatch. August 27, 2012. Retrieved December 30, 2018.
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