what will Obama do to restore the Constitution?

[grasswire]

I want real promises; real specifics. What has he pledged to do?

[tekisui]

1. Close Gitmo, restore Habeas, and review every chimpy signing statement.

No more torture.

[mathewsleep]

2. ahh... i like torture...

rats...

[grasswire]

4. review?

review the signing statements?

[tekisui]

7. It's more than we got coming from Hillary or the War Monger.

I want him to go farther. I want him to prosecute the War Criminals, dissolve all chimpy's Executive Orders and Signing Statements. He should and could do more.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

27. Yes He Should

[MadBadger]

3. He has pledged to go over every one of Bush's actions to see if they are constitutional

[FrenchieCat]

5. First, he's gonna have every single executive order done by Bush examined.....

and reverse any that are in any way in conflict with the Constitution....and also reverse any of them that don't make any sense based on open government.

[grasswire]

8. this doesn't make sense

The President of the United States doesn't decide constitutionality of an order. That precedent would be extremely frightening and a power grab bigger than Bush's.

Can you explain how this would work?

[BornBlue]

12. More frightening than Bush

Saying Congress has no power over him? That he can do whatever he wants because he is President? At least Obama taught Constitutional Law, he is probably pretty familiar with what is and isn't within the scope of the Constitution.

[thevoiceofreason]

13. Our current president has decided that he can alter a bill before it becomes law.

As the bill hits his desk for signature, he writes those cute signing statements stating things like "The EPA does not have to fund this environmental program and, in fact, this office believes that the program is improper and does not warrant funding." Presto - he just signed the bill into law, but with his "signing statement, he altered the bill, its stated purpose and its effect. The Constitution does not give him that right - he just created it out of whole cloth. So, Barack will go in and change that.

[grasswire]

22. I don't think it works like that.

Or are you saying that Barack has pledged to not use any signing statements? Is that what will change?

[BalancedGoat]

14. One would assume...

...that as chief executive he would have to the right to overturn previous executive orders. If that's the case then this would in no way be a power grab of any kind. Quite the opposite, I would think.

[grasswire]

24. two things are being mixed up here

1. Constitutionality
2. Power

The new POTUS might have the executive power to overturn an order (we haven't determined that here yet), but I don't believe he has the power to judge an order's constitutionality. That could only be determined through the courts.

[JayFredMuggs]

25. He doesn't need to go to court to enforce laws made by Congress

That's what the Constitution intends, and what a President swears to uphold when he takes the oath of office.

What's your problem?

[grasswire]

31. but some of those Constitutional protections have been breached..

...or set aside. Bush also swore to protect and defend the Constitution. The oath isn't enough after that. We need pledges with specifics of action.

[BalancedGoat]

35. I'm operating on the assumption...

...that it is within his power to overturn previous executive orders. I think all he would have to do is issue a new executive order that overrides or invalidates the old one. The brief research I just performed on the subject yielded nothing to the contrary. If you know of anything to the contrary feel free to post it. I actually enjoy being proven wrong because as far as I'm concerned it's just another way to broaden one's knowledge.

An executive order is not a law. To deny a president the ability to overturn the executive directives of his predecessors would seem to me to be an unconstitutional limitation on a sitting president's ability to run the executive branch. Of course, just because I think it's unconstitutional doesn't make it officially so. It is not outside the scope of a president's power to use the constitution as one of his personal factors in making decisions regarding how he choses to wield the powers of the chief executive as granted by the constitution. He has the power to veto a law for any reason he chooses, including a personal belief that such a law is not in keeping with the constitution. He does not, however, have the right to officially label said law "unconstitutional".

[RichardRay]

17. I know that signing statements aren't subject to review...

so it doesn't seem that reversing a signing statement would be. The abuse of signing statements has been one of the more egregious examples of the Current Occupants abuse of the separation of powers. He has essentially taken it upon himself to rewrite legislation that he didn't like.

Here's the ABA's statement re signing statements:

Presidential signing statements that assert President Bush’s authority to disregard or decline to enforce laws adopted by Congress undermine the rule of law and our constitutional system of separation of powers... To address these concerns, the task force urges Congress to adopt legislation enabling its members to seek court review of signing statements that assert the President’s right to ignore or not enforce laws passed by Congress, and urges the President to veto bills he feels are not constitutional.

ABA Statement

Given the Constitutional questions that arise from the orginal use of signing statements by Bush I don't think there'd be much of a dust up about reversing them.

As far as plain Executive Orders go, I don't think there's much of an issue. They're issued at the President's discretion, I imagine they can be revoked the same way.

[grasswire]

32. thank you for pointing out the difference between EOs and signing statements.

The distinction is noteworthy.

[thevoiceofreason]

6. And appoint SCt justices who view the Constitution as something more than a wall decoration

[tokenlib]

10. And there will probably be a few vacancies on the Court...n/t

[not_too_L8]

9. He has already sponsored a Bill requiring...

video taping during interrogations

[Doctor_J]

11. Prosecute every last traitor from the * admin, starting with Stupid

In order to restore the rule of law - aka the Constitution Of The United States Of America - he must begin my enforcing it. Cheney, Rice, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, and the rest of the war sales team should be first. Then should come Ashcroft, Gonzales, Mukasey and the rest of the DoJ that refused to enforece the law. When they're in prison, the media who pushed the war - Matthews, Blitzer, Russert, and everyone at Faux news - should be next in line.

[grasswire]

21. it would be nice, but I'm asking for reality

What has he pledged to do in this regard?

[JayFredMuggs]

26. What has Hillary pledged?

This is NOT something someone running for election pledges to do.

[grasswire]

30. I can't vote for someone who won't pledge to restore...

...the Constitution and say specifically how.

[azmouse]

15. This is a good thread. Thank you.

It would be nice to have more substantial policy discussions like this.

[DrFunkenstein]

16. Yes, Although I Wish It Was Titled "What Would THE CANDIDATES Do"

In particular, I have some questions about comments made by top staff members of Clinton's campaign that suggested she would press for more executive powers.

[azmouse]

18. That would make for interesting reading.

Maybe with her time with Bill in the WH she saw things where more executive power would have shut down the opposition. Not good for Democracy but good for the President.

[grasswire]

23. I suggest you start a separate Hillary thread, then.

Because a combined thread gets people worked up trading insults.

[backscatter712]

19. He's on record pledging to put an end to the warrantless wiretaps. n/t

[mmonk]

20. He signed the American Freedom Campaign's pledge

http://www.americanfreedomcampaign.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=117&Itemid=

WASHINGTON -- Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) signed the American Freedom Pledge yesterday, expressing his commitment to protecting and defending the Constitution. With Senator Obama's pledge, all of the Democratic presidential candidates except Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) have now either signed the pledge or have provided the American Freedom Campaign Action Fund with a detailed statement addressing the issues described in the American Freedom Campaign Agenda. (The full agenda is included at the bottom of this release.)

-snip-

"We are Americans, and in our America we do not torture, we do not imprison people without charge or legal remedy, we do not tap people's phones and emails without a court order, and above all we do not give any President unchecked power.

"I pledge to fight to protect and defend the Constitution from attack by any President."

[grasswire]

29. what do you know about the American Freedom Campaign?

Honestly, I am often suspicious of these organizations that arise seemingly from nowhere. This is the list of founders of that campaign:

Wes Boyd, founder of moveon.org

David Fenton, chairman of Fenton Communications (P.R.)

William Haseltine, prominent AIDS researcher

Naomi Wolf, author


What do you think? Heavy hitting and influential?

[crankychatter]

28. a lot of crisp, substantive information here

sounds like a good candidate to me

I know people from across the political spectrum that will happily vote for Obama

[grasswire]

33. okay, this is what I see so far in real, accountable action

1. Sponsored a bill to videotape interrogations

2. Pledged to end warrantless wiretaps

Did I miss something?

[grasswire]

34. let it sink?

Is that what's going on?

I don't see a good representation of Obama's platform here.

[grasswire]

36. last chance for Obama supporters...

...to talk about his platform here. I guess that says something in itself.

[dysfunctional press]

37. not nearly enough.

but i'm open to being pleasantly surprised...i just won't hold my breath for it.