Gonzales directing federal judges?

[question everything]

Was one of the questions by Jack Cafferty.

Something about Alberto Gonzales telling federal judges on what they should and should not do.

The comments were swift and to the point but I do not remember hearing about that. I suppose the story was buried by the other stories from the end of last week that came fast and furious.

[JDPriestly]

1. No way. Gonzales' attorneys appear before the judges as

the agents of the executive branch. Gonzales cannot tell the judges what to do. The federal Article III judges are independent of the other two branches of government. THey hold their offices for life in order to ensure their independence.

[question everything]

3. Ah, but he does. Found the story

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1152AP_Gonzales_Judges.html

Friday, September 29, 2006

Gonzales cautions judges on interfering

By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

WASHINGTON -- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who is defending President Bush's anti-terrorism tactics in multiple court battles, said Friday that federal judges should not substitute their personal views for the president's judgments in wartime.

He said the Constitution makes the president commander in chief and the Supreme Court has long recognized the president's pre-eminent role in foreign affairs. "The Constitution, by contrast, provides the courts with relatively few tools to superintend military and foreign policy decisions, especially during wartime," the attorney general told a conference on the judiciary at Georgetown University Law Center.

"Judges must resist the temptation to supplement those tools based on their own personal views about the wisdom of the policies under review," Gonzales said.

(snip)

Gonzales has sent Justice Department lawyers into federal courts from coast to coast defending Bush's detention of terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, his plans to try some of them before military tribunals and his use of the National Security Agency to wiretap Americans without court warrants when they communicate with suspected terrorists abroad.

(snip)

A handful of federal district judges either ordered an end to the warrantless wiretapping or agreed to hear court challenges to it. Opponents of the plan argue the NSA program violates the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act's requirement that the government get a warrant from a court that meets in secret before wiretapping Americans to gain intelligence information.

(snip)

[Kagemusha]

5. The little jerk can try, anyway.

It's up to the judges to resist these calls, which unfortunately, were not invented with Gonzales.

[JDPriestly]

6. He is just stating the executive's legal position.

He can't order the judges around.

[beaconess]

7. He can say anything he wants . . .

But the judges, who have lifetime tenure (unlike Gonzales, who is term-limited) have the final say.

[nam78_two]

2. Dear God....

He is one of the scariest ones too :scared:

[snowbear]

4. Yep.. I heard that on Jack Cafferty too

It was even one of his questions of the day.. Bush, Cheney & Gonzales are INSANE.

[Supersedeas]

8. Al Gonzo has an agenda and the Judges better conform to it