Steven G. Bradbury has served as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel since his first nomination to the post in June 2005. Bradbury earned his bachelor’s degree in 1980 from Stanford University, where he lived in a vegetarian commune. After graduation, he traveled for four months in Sandinista-ruled Nicaragua. Bradbury worked for the Michigan Law Review, replacing Ann Coulter as article editor. He received his JD from the University of Michigan Law School in 1988 and then spent two years as an attorney with Covington & Burling.

 

Bradbury clerked for Judge James L. Buckley (older brother of William Buckley, Jr.) of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (1990-1991) and switched his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican. Bradbury then worked as an attorney advisor for the Office of Legal Counsel (1991-1992) and as a clerk for US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas (1992-1993).

 

Before joining the Bush administration, Bradbury was a partner with Kirkland & Ellis, LLP in Washington, DC, where he handled cases involving antitrust, securities law, telecommunications, appellate practice and administrative law. The firm is known for hiring conservatives, including Kenneth Starr and John Bolton.

 

Bradbury has headed the Office of Legal Counsel for more than three years without ever having been confirmed by the Senate. The Bush administration exploited a loophole in the nomination process to keep Bradbury in place by renominating him more than once. His earlier nominations stalled in the Senate because of a dispute with the Justice Department over its failure to provide Congress with copies of legal opinions on a variety of terrorism issues. Under Senate rules that place a time limit on nominations, Bradbury’s previous nominations expired.

 

In late 2007, Democrats urged the White House to withdraw Bradbury’s name once and for all and find a new candidate for the post after it was disclosed in news reports in October that he was the author of classified memorandums that gave approval to harsh interrogation techniques, including head slapping, exposure to cold and simulated drowning.

 

Steven Bradbury’s Liberal Roots (by Pedro Ruz Gutierrez, Legal Times)

Justice Nomination Seen as Snub to Democrats (by Philip Shenon and Eric Lichtblau)