What's the Constitutional Equivalent of Checks and Balances?

Jacob Sullum | March 21, 2007

What will happen if President Bush responds to congressional demands that White House aides testify about personnel decisions at the Justice Department by invoking executive privilege? According to a "news analysis" by Adam Liptak in today's New York Times, that would be "the constitutional equivalent of a declaration of war." Isn't a declaration of war the constitutional equivalent of a declaration of war?