This is CBS. I on the world. I'm John Batchel. I welcome my colleague Professor Richard Epstein of the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas. He teaches law at NYU and the University of Chicago. The headline from the New York Times, Judge declines to block Musk's foray into federal

agencies. Subhead, a coalition of states, writes the New York Times, had sought to temporarily block

Elon Musk's operatives, the Doge Boys, from having access to sensitive data and ordering mass firings.

Richard, a very good evening to you.

This is a question of the Appointments Clause in the Constitution, I believe.

And is Mr. Musk a decision-making member of the administration requiring the advice and consent of the Senate,

or is he an advice giver to the decision-makers that would be the president and the members of the cabinet,

who then can choose to follow through his advice or not?

Good evening to you, Richard.

Yes, good evening, and it's a very ticky question. There's actually two issues that are involved. One is the one

that you mentioned about the Appointment's Clause, and what it says, that any officer of the

United States is generally has to be confirmed by the Senate, but inferior officers need not

be, they could be appointed by the president, by the Senate, but inferior offices need not be, they could be appointed by the

president, by the courts and so forth. And so what happens is, and the heads to department,

is what is mosque? Well, if you look at the statute, there's a statute which talks about

the creation of temporary offices, and it was pursuant to that statute that mosque was appointed as this

special kind of advising. Generally speaking, people in that particular category are usually

regarded as offices, and the reason is, is that they do not have a simple advisory capacity,

because they have the capacity to tell what other people to do and to demand

that they do it. So he's not behaving like one of the presidential advisors behind this scene.

He is front and center is probably the most visible feature, figure in, say, administration.

And that means, in effect, that you can't treat him as though he's a simple advisor.

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