Trump taps Scalia’s son as Labor secretary pick

President Trump announced Thursday evening that he would nominate, Eugene Scalia, the son of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, to lead the Labor Department. 

“I am pleased to announce that it is my intention to nominate Gene Scalia as the new Secretary of Labor,” Trump tweeted late Thursday. 

I am pleased to announce that it is my intention to nominate Gene Scalia as the new Secretary of Labor. Gene has led a life of great success in the legal and labor field and is highly respected not only as a lawyer, but as a lawyer with great experience….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 19, 2019

“Gene has led a life of great success in the legal and labor field and is highly respected not only as a lawyer, but as a lawyer with great experience working with labor and everyone else. He will be a great member of an Administration that has done more in the first 2 ½ years than perhaps any Administration in history!” Trump added

Eugene Scalia, 55, is a partner at the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and is a member and former co-chairman of its Labor and Employment Practice Group. He also co-chairs the firm’s Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice Group.

{mosads}The younger Scalia served as Solicitor of the Labor Department from 2002 to 2003 after his appointment by former President George W. Bush.

He represented Bush in 2000 in the Supreme Court’s Bush v. Gore case over the Florida election recount. He also represented Wal-Mart in 2006 against a law in Maryland that would have required large companies — those with more than 10,000 employees — to spend more of their health care money on employees.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) denounced Trump’s decision, writing in a statement, “Workers and union members who believed candidate Trump when he campaigned as pro-worker should feel betrayed.” 

“President Trump is missing an opportunity to nominate a fighter for workers, like a union member, to be America’s next Labor Secretary,” Schumer wrote. “Instead, President Trump has again chosen someone who has proven to put corporate interests over those of worker rights.”

Acting Labor Secretary Patrick Pizzella was instated last week after former Secretary Alexander Acosta resigned amid questions over a plea deal he brokered more than a decade ago as a U.S. attorney for sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who was arrested recently on new charges.