Illegal Diplomacy

WSJ ^ | April 6, 2007 | ROBERT F. TURNER

[Brilliant]

...Nancy Pelosi may well have committed a felony in traveling to Damascus this week, against the wishes of the president, to communicate on foreign-policy issues with Syrian President Bashar Assad...

The "Logan Act" makes it a felony and provides for a prison sentence of up to three years for any American, "without authority of the United States," to communicate with a foreign government in an effort to influence that government's behavior on any "disputes or controversies with the United States."...

President John Adams requested the statute after a Pennsylvania pacifist ...traveled to France in 1798 to assure the French government that the American people favored peace... Rep. Roger Griswold...explained that the object was... "to punish a crime which goes to the destruction of the executive power..."

Rep. Isaac Parker of Massachusetts explained, "the people of the United States have given to the executive department the power to negotiate with foreign governments, and to carry on all foreign relations, and that it is therefore an usurpation of that power for an individual to undertake to correspond with any foreign power on any dispute..."

Griswold and Parker were Federalists who believed in strong executive power. But consider this statement by Albert Gallatin, the future Secretary of the Treasury under ...Jefferson, who was wary of centralized government: "it would be extremely improper for a member of this House to enter into any correspondence with the French Republic..." Indeed, the offense is greater when the usurpation of the president's constitutional authority is done by a member of the legislature -- all the more so by a Speaker of the House -- because it violates not just statutory law but constitutes a usurpation of the powers of a separate branch and a breach of the oath of office Ms. Pelosi took to support the Constitution...

[RDTF]

shouldn’t this be on the sidebar? Thanks

[jws3sticks]

Let's fill her email in-box with copies of this excerpt of the Logan Act, with a copy to POTUS.

Her email is "sf.nancy@mail.house.gov"

This is close as I could get for GWB "comments@whitehouse.gov"

[pyx]

Pelosi violated The Logan Act and MUST be charged.

QUOTE Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both. UNQUOTE

The Constitution is clear. The Constitution MUST be enforced. Pelosi MUST be charged because she violated the Logan Act.

Pelosi's unauthorized trip to Syria explicitly against the request of the President to not go, to negotiate foreign policy for the United States is in direct violation to the Logan Act.

Enforce the Constitution now.

[parthian shot]

Yeah, I guess you are right. However, wouldn’t it be nice to have someone think of, what I hope is a truly moral majority, interested in Constitutional law,....we the people, the law of the land..... instead of me, me, me, me. Instead of thinking about a personal, political, career they think of the constituents?

Ahhhh...what a beautiful dream....I guess it’s time to get back to reality. Thanks for waking me up.

[NonValueAdded]

It also represents a stunning naivete on her part. I pray for the health of President Bush and VP Cheney.

[Finalapproach29er]

The most hollow Presidency since Ike.

Why did he run if he doesn’t want to use his authority?

[DownInFlames]

Unfortunately, for the last 30 years, the USA has been sliding down the slopes of anarchy. Should GW ignore the letter of the law further by ignoring our borders and Pelozi’s illegal trip to the ME, we the people have the duty to fill the void our Government is leaving.

The Declaration of Independence states in the first sentence “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”

We are coming to the point where our leaders at all levels need to be removed. If we do not act, this will be just the beginning of the furthering Anarchy that we are just beginning to see.

[amutr22]

Does this mean explicitly the consent of the POTUS? Or can she be covered as being part of the US Government?

[jackv]

bttt

[amutr22]

Does this mean explicitly the consent of the POTUS? Or can she be covered as being part of the US Government?

[philman_36]

placemarker

[thirst4truth]

Saving it for later

[rob21]

http://www.house.gov/writerep/

Start putting pressure on congress. We can’t let Pelosi violate the laws of our nation. Democrats have to follow the law, just like the rest of us.

[MainFrame65]

IT seems to me that this has now become another of those vital questions to be asked, again and again, of every presidential candidate.

Something like, “In light of recent and repeated contacts by unauthorized indviduals with hostile governments, usurping the Constitutional power of the President and in clear violation of the Logan Act, will you now promise to enforce the sole authority of the President to conduct foreign policy?”

[HoustonTech]

This article has been made available at the WSJ's free OpinionJournal site here:

Illigal Deplomacy

[Kaslin]

Of course perjury is against the law. That is why Billy Jeff was impeached

[Kaslin]

Start putting pressure on congress. We can’t let Pelosi violate the laws of our nation. Democrats have to follow the law, just like the rest of us.

Are you kidding? Laws are only for usn not the Rats. They are excempted

[finnman69]

Impeach Pelosi!

[TLI]

SEA ISLAND, Georgia (CNN) -- President Bush said Thursday he never authorized the use of any interrogation techniques in the war on terrorism that would violate U.S. or international laws.

"The authorization I issued was that anything we did would conform to U.S. law and would be consistent with international treaty obligations," Bush told reporters at the G8 Summit.

***

the Truman Administration argued its position in the Federal courts and asked the Supreme Court to rule that he had the "inherent authority" under the Constitution to seize the steel factories despite the fact that the Congress did not want him to do so and thus refused to give him this power.

The Supreme Court said that even though the President may have a claim to some "inherent authority" to seize these factories, once Congress has enacted laws making clear that he cannot do so, the President under our system of Government does not have the right to act outside of the law by violating Congress’ intent. In so ruling, the Court said that the where Congress has the power to legislate in a certain area (as it plainly does with regard to regulating eavesdropping on American citizens), the President is no more permitted to violate that law than anyone else is, even if he claims that doing so is necessary for him to carry out his Executive duties to protect the nation. It really does not get any clearer or more dispositive than this.

***

State of the Union Address, January 2002

THE PRESIDENT:

"But America will always stand firm for the non-negotiable demands of human dignity: the rule of law; limits on the power of the state"

Pretty clear. If the President is not exempt from the law, neither is the Speaker of the House.

[SkyPilot]

"I have no interest in investigating Speaker Pelosi committed a Felony or Treason. I am more interested in whether Scooter Libby told Tim Russert he had a bagel for breakfast, when I know darn well he had a bran muffin."