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Dead Constitution
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Title: Sheldon Whitehouse: Proof Bush Believes he is the Law
Source: Daily Kos
URL Source: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/12/7/134323/018/855/419168
Published: Dec 7, 2007
Author: "MLDB"
Post Date: 2007-12-07 14:14:10 by aristeides
Keywords: None
Views: 118
Comments: 6

Sheldon Whitehouse: Proof Bush Believes he is the Law

by MLDB [Subscribe]
Fri Dec 07, 2007 at 10:53:32 AM PST

Sheldon Whitehouse ripped the Bush administration's legal opinion of itself today. He has gotten his hands on some of the documents from the Office of Legal Counsel and had this to say about them:

For years under the Bush Administration, the Office of Legal Counsel within the Department of Justice has issued highly classified secret legal opinions related to surveillance. This is an administration that hates answering to an American court, that wants to grade its own papers, and OLC is the inside place the administration goes to get legal support for its spying program.

As a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I was given access to those opinions, and spent hours poring over them. Sitting in that secure room, as a lawyer, as a former U.S. Attorney, legal counsel to Rhode Island's Governor, and State Attorney General, I was increasingly dismayed and amazed as I read on.

And what was amazing to him? Here's his conclusions: [the bold is mine...as if it needs it]

To give you an example of what I read, I have gotten three legal propositions from these OLC opinions declassified. Here they are, as accurately as my note taking could reproduce them from the classified documents. Listen for yourself. I will read all three, and then discuss each one.

1. An executive order cannot limit a President. There is no constitutional requirement for a President to issue a new executive order whenever he wishes to depart from the terms of a previous executive order. Rather than violate an executive order, the President has instead modified or waived it.

2. The President, exercising his constitutional authority under Article II, can determine whether an action is a lawful exercise of the President's authority under Article II.

3. The Department of Justice is bound by the President's legal determinations.

As Emptywheel (who has the full speech) calls it, this is something of a smoking gun pointing to the administration's willingness to put itself above the law.

Here's the penultimate paragraph of his speech:

When the Congress of the United States is willing to roll over for an unprincipled President, this is where you end up. We should not even be having this discussion. But here we are. I implore my colleagues: reject these feverish legal theories. I understand political loyalty, trust me, I do. But let us also be loyal to this great institution we serve in the legislative branch of our government. Let us also be loyal to the Constitution we took an oath to defend, from enemies foreign and domestic. And let us be loyal to the American people who live each day under our Constitution's principles and protections.

How about contacting those congress critters?

Update [2007-12-7 14:1:51 by MLDB]: Some clarification: The OLC docs were from the warrantless wiretapping opinions (IMO the best case for impeachment)...video is available at Think Progress

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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 6.

#1. To: aristeides (#0)

Lod  posted on  2007-12-07   14:22:45 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  

There's apparently now a video of Whitehouse's speech, here: http://thinkprogress.org/2007/12/07/whitehouse-speech-olc/

aristeides  posted on  2007-12-07   15:16:10 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  

Thanks for that link.

Fred Mertz  posted on  2007-12-07   16:16:03 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  

I haven't seen the video myself. How does it look?

aristeides  posted on  2007-12-07   16:31:26 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  

It is clear, concise and makes his three points. He used three poster board visual aids to print each point on.

Fred Mertz  posted on  2007-12-07   16:35:09 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  

Whitehouse used to be a prosecutor, I believe.

aristeides  posted on  2007-12-07   16:40:48 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  

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