Bush Declares Himself Above the Law
Posted by ~Ray @ 2008-11-13 12:18:32
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.
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. [my emphasis]
It appears that what Bush thought he could do was to make these determinations secret and yet use them to bully various members of the government. His secret is out and only time will tell what happens next.
Please spread this info to as many blogs as you can and try to get them to front page it if possible. It is vitally important that this see the light of day.[ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/12/8/10255/8779
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