The Special Division is a division of the
. 28 U.S.C. § 49 (1982 ed., Supp. V) (Title VI of the
Ethics in Government Act
The Ethics in Government Act of 1978 is a United States federal law that was passed in the wake of the Nixon Watergate scandal and the Saturday Night Massacre. It was intended to fight corruption in government.
Summary
The Ethics in Governmen ...
). It consists of three circuit court judges or justices appointed by the
Chief Justice of the United States
The chief justice of the United States is the chief judge of the Supreme Court of the United States and is the highest-ranking officer of the U.S. federal judiciary. Appointments Clause, Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution g ...
. One of the judges must be a judge of the DC Circuit, and no two of the judges may be named to the Special Division from a particular court. The judges are appointed for 2-year terms, with any vacancy being filled only for the remainder of the 2-year period. Its constitutionality was upheld in
Morrison v. Olson.
On December 19, 1986,
Lawrence Walsh
Lawrence Edward Walsh (January 8, 1912 – March 19, 2014) was an American lawyer and judge who was United States Deputy Attorney General from 1957 to 1961 and a judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. H ...
was appointed
Independent Counsel
The Office of Special Counsel was a prosecutorial unit within the United States Department of Justice that operated from 1978 until the expiration of its statutory authority on December 31, 1999. Created by the Ethics in Government Act o ...
for
Iran/Contra Matters by the Special Division.
References
Morrison v. Olson
{{Authority control
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit