USA Today: Wiretap ruling affirms that presidents aren't monarchs

[kpete]

Wiretap ruling affirms that presidents aren't monarchs
Updated 8/17/2006

For the past five years, the Bush administration has operated as if the horrific events of 9/11 not only changed fundamental aspects of national security and public safety, but also changed the very nature of government.
OPPOSING VIEW: NSA program is vital tool

President Bush has unilaterally declared what parts of new laws he wishes to enforce. He has created military tribunals unauthorized by Congress. And, perhaps most ominously, he has authorized eavesdropping on phone calls to and from the USA without court orders.

Bush has done these things by simply asserting that the powers of the presidency enumerated in Article II of the Constitution — particularly the clause making him the "Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy" — are much more sweeping than previously imagined. In short, he has acted like a king.

Fortunately, the courts have begun to rein in his royal ambitions. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out the military tribunals. And on Thursday, federal Judge Anna Diggs Taylor struck down the warrantless surveillance program, finding it to be a violation of the First and Fourth Amendments and the principle of separation of powers. "There are no hereditary Kings in America," she wrote.

The ruling by Taylor, who was appointed by President Carter, is far from the final word. The wiretapping program will continue while the administration appeals. It is not hard to see other courts ruling differently by saying that the plaintiffs, led by the American Civil Liberties Union, should not have been given standing to bring the case because they could not show they were harmed by the eavesdropping.

more at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2006-08-17-our-view_x.htm

[babylonsister]

1. That title is delicious, but, as Cafferty stated, why couldn't Congress

figure that out?

[Ilsa]

2. "Argument From Authority"?

snip "...But the ruling does undermine Bush's main argument — that the program is constitutional because the administration says it is constitutional..." snip

[Atman]

3. Bull-fucking-shit!

Awwwww, da poooooor widdle pwesident finally is told he has to obey the law. But of course, being Bush, and thus too stupid to have even gandered at the Constitution, he'll igore Judge Taylor's ruling outright. After all, she's a mere judge. He's the KING!