Posted on 01/28/2006 5:15:23 PM PST by new yorker 77
The inevitable confirmation of Samuel Alito for a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court may seem to many to be one of those routine transactions between branches of government. In fact, it is part of a larger picture that ought to frighten and outrage Americans of every political stripe.
President Bush has, in recent years, asserted "inherent powers" and "exclusive authority" regardless of laws passed by Congress and language in the U.S. Constitution - and has used the purported powers as a reason to withhold information and exclude Congress from decisions.
On occasion, the court, with the support of outgoing Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, has thwarted the administration's radical agenda, as in its ruling that the president may not hold, indefinitely and without trial, anyone he declares an "unlawful enemy combatant."
The court will grow much more compliant with Alito's ascension. That is one of the many reasons that we think his nomination should be rejected, although we understand that won't happen with this Senate.
Congress, curiously, has played a major role in the diminishing of its own powers.
All of this is taking place under the rubric of a reactionary theory of American government called the "unitary executive." That theory has clanked around among right-wing academics and think tanks since at least the Reagan years. But in the hands of the Bush administration, it has become an aggressive battle plan for altering the very fabric of representative government in the United States.
In essence, the theory holds that the executive - the president - may interpret the laws and the Constitution as he wishes, without regard to congressional legislation or court ruling.
Alito has been a disciple of this radical theory for many years, and it shows in his record on the federal bench. He has rarely met a government intrusion that he didn't like. He has rarely found a limit to government's power.
That's not conservative. That's authoritarian. And that's frightening.
The Republican majorities in the Congress haven't just rolled over and played dead. They have actively and enthusiastically participated in the emasculation of their own offices. It is a grotesque parody of the system the Founding Fathers designed.
Perhaps all those "conservatives" in Congress should close their eyes and imagine such an all-powerful executive branch in the hands of, say, a President Hillary Clinton. Would they still be so eager to abandon their duty to the Constitution and the separation of powers it enshrines?
The foundation for Bush's assault, of course, is Sept. 11 and the war on terrorism. Bush has played upon the natural fears and anxieties - as well as the anger - of the American people since the terrorist attacks four years ago.
Every atrocity committed against the Constitution - illegal wiretaps, demands to see Internet communications of private citizens, snooping into medical records, detentions without trial or counsel, increasing limits on civil liberties - is couched in terms of "winning the war on terrorism," a war that, in an unusual moment of candor, the president himself admitted probably cannot be won.
In other words, an endless national emergency presided over by an all-powerful executive.
That's not where the founders meant us to go, but it is where we are being taken. It's a frightening destination.
one kooks-a-plenty shake going on there..
If I lived in Fresno, I'd be pissed off about everything all the time too.
Tread carefully there, newb....
Thanks for ratting me out.
Libs...anything their side does is great, anything the other side does is bad and wrong. Same old story that will never change.
This is a bald faced lie.
Fresno is one of the better places to live in California. One of the few conservative towns.
I agree.. but the funny part was the route the story took..
What a rag. The Fresno Bee has to the western version of the NY Times, they're way loonier than the LA Times.
I was referring to the ocean views.
Sorry to say, I lived in San Francisco for several years.
Dispatcher - are there any jackbooted thugs currently available in that vicinity?
Here is a
REAL
"EXTREMIST":
Who is he?
I meant that last post I did for the author of the article :)
Yawn. I remember during the Clinton administration, how he wanted just about every financial transaction to be reported to the government, a "clipper chip" in every computer to let the FBI have a backdoor for domestic spying, and more government snooping on anyone legally owning a gun. The argument was that if you snoop on millions of people, eventually you will find a criminal. Most leftists were delighted with that. Now there is a net narrowly focussed on terrorists and their helpers and you would think it is the end of the world and the leftists want to grant civil rights to foreign terrorists.
If you win elections you may choose nominees. If you don't then shut up and call all Republicans racist, homophobic, sexist, religious zealots!
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