Reply #119: And you think the executive branch of the US has not done this already? [View All]

[mgr]

Stare decesis.

Custom.

It's a mistake to argue that Bush will be the first, when other presidents have committed similar immoral actions. Whether that morality is incorporated into the constitution is unclear. Lincoln's suspension of habeus corpus during the Civil War was an abuse of the constitution, but I don't recall any historic accounts of attempts to impeach him over it--it's the first of many "we had to destroy it in order to save it" moments in our history.

The problem is not Bush per se, but a legislative branch that has abrogated many of its constitutional perogatives to the executive since the Tonkin Gulf.

Anyway, once you distance yourself from your Zell moment, you may observe that you are essentially arguing that because they could, they would as a fait accompli. It may work in the Napoleonic code, but not in common law. It's our obligation to show their guilt, not theirs to prove their innocence.

Mike