Posted on 08/09/2010 12:45:08 PM PDT by Congressman Billybob
Shephard Smith just interviewed Judge Napolitano on air on the subject of the two military tribunal trials just beginning at Gitmo. The judge went way beyond his competence in saying that "there was no constitututional basis for these trials."
Fox News has no meand to post immediately any response to their mistakes on air. They also have no way to reach them by phone. (I know. I've tried many times.) The bottom line is that the Judge made statements that are appallingly, obviously wrong, and Shep nodded like a bobblehead and agreed with him.
The Judge said that the Quirin Case (unanimous, 1942, approval of tribunak trials of eight saboteurs -- two of them Americans -- was based on the fact that we were at war. Then he said, "we have not declared war, now."
This was a profoundly ignorant statement. The original Patriot Act in September, 2001, included a Joint Resolution of Congress to approve "the use of military force" against terrorists, including "across international borders."
This was almost word for word the same language that Congress passed to give President Thomas Jefferson the authority to make war on the Barbary Pirates. (That was the one other occasion in which Congress committed the US to go to war without naming a specific nation as the enemy country.
A competent lawyer, or reporter, would not miss such obvious points. Smith, Napolitano, and Fox News all owe the American public a retraction and an apology, for this legal and historical incompetence.
John / Billybob
Anyone doing a competent job of researching the subject of US declarations of war would find an article I wrote for UPI, distributed nationally, reviewing and comparing all the declarations of war in US history.
With 33 years of practicing in the US Supreme Court, I know this stuff. I know it much better than Judge Napolitano who has not been in that Court's chambers without a visitors' permit.
John / Billybob
SHAME ON THE JUDGE BUT SHEP IS A DUMMY ANYWAY.. sory for caps
John / Billybob
This is hardly the first time Andrew Napolitano’s competency has been called into question.
I’m getting sick and tired of this man being Fox’s go-to guy on any and every legal issue. Just because he was a mid-level state judge for a few years does not make him an expert in every matter involving the law.
Don’t tell me Fox can’t afford a broader stable of legal eagles to consult.
I agree. There are other things Napolitano has been wrong on as well.
Judge Napolitano has made several ‘bad’ comments regarding law and The Constitution during his years on FoxNews.
I have posted before that that may be the reason he is a FoxNews commentator and not a sitting judge.
I take his ‘legal opinions’ as just that — his opinions, not necessary based in the law.
ya for one thing we are Republic
Judge Napolitano is an incompetent boob.
Shep is a lapdog (pun intended). He is dumb as post and so far left, he is nearly right. The judge is equally wrong most of the time.
Sad, that!
Is Napolitano related to Janet?
No, thank God!
Isn’t Judge Napolitano the very same guy who said Palin was Presidential material?
I take what he says with a grain of salt.
I trust Marc Levin
Same here. One gets the distinct impression that Levin is always doing his homework. He never seems to spout off on issues of which he knows nothing.
The judge is slipping into the nut bin where sheepherd smith already resides.
I trust the judge more than I trust DumBO. I don’t believe Republicans, but, Bolshecrats are liars.
Bin Ladin said we are at war,,the modern day certified snot faced librals missed this fact entirely with malice aforethought, these queer-baits do NOT want America to win this war.
The judge has said many wrong things but they are usually harmless. For example he insisted that waterboarding was “torture” in the legal sense. He is not competent in many areas (especially Constitutional law and the law of war), but try telling HIM that.
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