George Will’s weekend column raises some excellent new questions for Ms. Lynch. In addition to allowing the Senate to screen potential nominees, Will notes that Senate confirmation hearings “put nominees on notice that, as a Michigan state legislator reportedly once said, ‘I’m watching everything you do with a fine-toothed comb.’” Will raises several important questions for Ms. Lynch, ranging from questions about due process and criminal law to the evenhanded administration of justice.

As I have noted before, the compromised “Moonlight Fire” investigation and litigation has been the subject of intense scrutiny by state and federal courts in California, and increasingly, by national media. Will could have asked another question:

“It seems that the federal government is increasingly using its sheer weight to extort settlement payments from deep-pocketed defendants, even where there is no legal basis for a claim. In cases like the Moonlight Fire investigation, systemic incentives to fill government coffers with private money can create tremendous personal incentives for government officials to abandon impartiality. What will you do to end this practice?”