New at Reason
Jacob Sullum investigates our next attorney general's curious view of the law.
Comments to "New at Reason":
Warren | October 24, 2007, 9:19am | #
Since the law "starts with the Constitution," he said, the president need not obey a statute that interferes with his inherent constitutional authority "to defend the country."Un, fucking, believable. The reason the president isn't bound by law, is because the constitution supersedes the law, and the law is in conflict with this "constitutional authority" I just made up.
You go to hell Mukasey. You go to hell and you die.
The administration is still making this argument, and no matter how many times I turn it over in my head, it still comes out incoherent.
Yeah, I thought the division of powers is that the President supervises the people doing stuff and Congress makes the rules for how stuff will be done.
barry payne - economist | October 24, 2007, 11:47am | #
SHADES OF GONZALES“There is no expressed grant of habeas in the Constitution; there’s a prohibition against taking it away,” Gonzales said.
Gonzales’s remark left Specter, the committee’s ranking Republican, stammering.
“Wait a minute,” Specter interjected. “The Constitution says you can’t take it away except in case of rebellion or invasion. Doesn’t that mean you have the right of habeas corpus unless there’s a rebellion or invasion?”
Gonzales continued, “The Constitution doesn’t say every individual in the United States or citizen is hereby granted or assured the right of habeas corpus. It doesn’t say that. It simply says the right shall not be suspended” except in cases of rebellion or invasion.”
“You may be treading on your interdiction of violating common sense,” Specter said.
dbust1 | October 24, 2007, 12:03pm | #
I've said it before (during Clinton) and I'm saying it now. There should be an absolute separation between the President and the AG and the AG and Congress. The President shouldn't select the AG and Congress shouldn't appoint the AG either. I'm not sure what the exact process should be but under the past two presidents we've seen AGs whose actions, at the behest of the incumbent president, have been highly suspect.crimethink | October 24, 2007, 12:59pm | #
I'm fairly certain the Senate Democrats are going to roll over and confirm this fool anyway...and I'm even more certain that joe will explain to us afterward why it was good and beautiful for them to do so.R C Dean | October 24, 2007, 1:31pm | #
There should be an absolute separation between the President and the AG and the AG and Congress.Sounds like somebody wants a Public Censor. Any volunteers?
Seriously, though, the only alternative to an appointed AG is an elected AG. That's been tried in the States, and, frankly, hasn't exactly been a recipe for success. The basic problem is that elected AGs are by definition politically ambitious prosecutors.
thoreau | October 24, 2007, 1:37pm | #
You could always have an AG appointed to a fixed term, and make it so that the President can't remove any Justice Department employees. The AG would then be independent of the President (since his continuance in office wouldn't depend on the President) but would have the advantages of being appointed rather than elected.I dunno, just a thought. I'm not committed to this proposal, just speculating.
This sort of thing is hideous, but I don't think structural changes are the answer. We have an electoral process and all.
DannyK | October 24, 2007, 4:09pm | #
All this stuff is explained in the secret appendix to the Constitution, written in invisible ink on the back of the document.If you could just get it out of the nitrogen-filled display case for a minute, I'd show you.
Grady Smith | October 26, 2007, 4:06pm | #
One gap in Mukasey's testimony not mentioned is the non-answer to "Is waterboarding torture?" If an attorney and former judge at this stage of the proceedings cannot decide, he should be disbarred as demonstrably incompetent. If a nominee for attorney general has decided but chooses not to share his decision with the vetting committee, he should be voted down.