Noah Feldman, Columnist

So What If Trump Hires His Son-in-Law

It's probably not illegal, and it would provide some transparency.

November 18, 2016 at 8:06 PM UTC

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

It's not like they're going to stop talking.
Photographer: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

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Should President-elect Donald Trump decide to appoint his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to a White House post, there are two potential nepotism problems: one legal and one moral. Neither should block the appointment. The law likely doesn’t cover White House appointments, and the ethical concern is outweighed by the value of transparency among the president’s closest advisers.

The anti-nepotism law was passed in 1967, after Robert Kennedy’s term as attorney general under his brother John Kennedy. It was signed by Lyndon Johnson, who detested Bobby Kennedy and may have taken some pleasure in the after-the-fact condemnation of his appointment.