History of the federal conflict of interest standard, from its 1863 enactment through Kennedy era recodification and 1989 change exempting the President & Vice-President.

1. Federal
Conflict of Interest
Standards
Kathleen Clark
Council on Government Ethics Laws (COGEL)
Toronto
December 3, 2017

2. 1863

3. officer/agent/member or
interest in “profits or
contracts” of corp
->
not act as officer or agent
of US for transacting
business w/ corp

4. 1909

5. officer/agent/member or
interest in “profits or
contracts” of corp / assn
->
not act as officer or agent
of US for transacting
business w/ corp / assn

6. 1948

7. officer/agent/member or
interest in “profits or
contracts” of corp / assn /
business entity
->
not act as officer or agent
of US for transacting
business w/ business entity

8. 1961

9. JFK’s
ethics
reform
proposal

10. COI
standard
applies
to
govt employees

11. “govt employee”
definition
would exclude
President & Veep

12. 1962

13. Congress
enacts
18 USC §§ 201 - 218

14. Rejects
exclusion of
President & Veep

15. President & Veep
bound by
financial COI law

16. 1974

17. DoJ
Office of Legal Counsel
(OLC)
Opinion
by Silberman

18. “disqualification of the
President from policy
decisions because of
personal conflicting
interest is
inconceivable”

19. 1989

20. Bush (41)’s
ethics
reform
package

21. Defined
“officer” & “employee”
to exclude
President & Veep

22. “the terms ‘officer’ and
‘employee’ in sections 203, 205,
207, 208, and 209 of this title,
mean those individuals defined
in sections 2104 and 2105 of title
5. The terms ‘officer’ and
‘employee’ shall not include the
President, the Vice President, a
Member of Congress, or a
Federal judge.”

23. Congress
adopted
this language
w/o
discussion

24. 2012

25. STOCK Act

26. Recusal
requirement applies to
President & Veep

27. Federal
Conflict of Interest
Standards
Kathleen Clark
kathleen_clark@mac.com
COGEL
Toronto
December 3, 2017