A.B.A. TO INVESTIGATE BUSH'S SIGNING STATEMENTS

From the Boston Globe courtesy of AlterNet:

The board of governors of the American Bar Association voted unanimously yesterday to investigate whether President Bush has exceeded his constitutional authority in reserving the right to ignore more than 750 laws that have been enacted since he took office.

Meeting in New Orleans, the board of governors for the world's largest association of legal professionals approved the creation of an all-star legal panel with a number of members from both political parties.

They include a former federal appeals court chief judge, a former FBI director, and several prominent scholars -- to evaluate Bush's assertions that he has the power to ignore laws that conflict with his interpretation of the Constitution.

Bush has appended statements to new laws when he signs them, noting which provisions he believes interfere with his powers.

Among the laws Bush has challenged are the ban on torturing detainees, oversight provisions in the USA Patriot Act, and ``whistle-blower" protections for federal employees.

The challenges also have included safeguards against political interference in taxpayer-funded research.

Bush has challenged more laws than all previous presidents combined.

Click here for the rest.

As a lawyer in the article observes, Bush can say anything he wants when he signs a bill into law. Apparently, "signing statements" have been used by Presidents for a long time, usually to simply and enthusiastically endorse whatever law is being signed. The problem with Bush is that many of his signing statements appear to be presented as legalistic enforcement interpretation, often completely nullifying the bill he's signing. Obviously, that's completely unconstitutional: Presidents enforce the law, but Congress has the sole authority to make law. This fits Bush's very disturbing pattern of amassing White House power. Basically, he just does whatever he wants and then waits to see if anybody's going to do anything about it. Then his people fight tooth and nail to stop the challenge. Meanwhile, as due process moves along slowly, Bush gets his way anyway. Oftentimes, when a court or Congressional challenge actually wins, he just ignores it. In other words, the President is trying to completely change our governmental system. He really is trying to crown himself king. And unless the whole damned country does a full court press against him, he's going to be King George I, and that's it for the republic.

Frightening.

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