After mounting pressure regarding his personal and professional history, Andrew Pudzer, Chief Executive Officer of CKE Restaurants, withdrew his nomination for Secretary of Labor last week.  The withdrawal was quickly followed by the Trump administration's nomination of R. Alexander Acosta to the position.

 

Acosta currently serves as dean of the Florida International University's College of Law.  He has experience clerking for judges on the U.S. Supreme Court and United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.  He has worked in private practice at Kirkland & Ellis, as well as in the public sector roles of Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida.  He was also appointed to be a member of the National Labor Relations Board by President George W. Bush, and served in that role between 2002 and 2003.

 

Acosta's confirmation hearing has yet to be scheduled; however, his nomination is viewed as less controversial than that of Pudzer.