Friday, July 21, 2006
Law RhetIraq: American Bar Association to Recommend Ability to Sue Bush for Signing Statements
Source: US News & World Report
Quotes: From article titled, "Bar association task force urges Congress to push for judicial review of Bush signing statements"
Although the president has not issued more statements in total than any other president, he has challenged more than 750 laws in more than 100 signing statements. And he has used them to, in effect, challenge parts of laws, and challenge them more aggressively, than any president before him. Bush's liberal use of those statements first attracted attention in December 2005, when he signed a torture ban—but then added a statement reserving the right not to enforce the ban, alongside his signature.
In a report to be released Monday, the [American Bar Association] task force will recommend that Congress pass legislation providing for some sort of judicial review of the signing statements. Some task force members want to simply give Congress the right to sue over the signing statements; other task force members will not characterize what sort of judicial review might ultimately emerge.
"It's hard to imagine the abandonment of conservative principles in his lawlessness," said Bruce Fein, a member of the task force who voted for Bush twice and served as associate deputy attorney general under President Ronald Reagan.
At a hearing he called in late in late June to investigate the statements, Sen. Arlen Specter interrogated four testifying law professors about one remedy in particular: legislation that would allow Congress or its members to sue the president for his use of statements. Fein has been drafting such legislation ever since.
Fein's plan would begin with Congress passing legislation giving itself authority to sue the president over a statement. Then it would proceed with a lawsuit, focused on a particular statement. Under the plan, that suit would move eventually to the Supreme Court, which would then set precedent in whatever it decided.
Quotes: From article titled, "Bar association task force urges Congress to push for judicial review of Bush signing statements"
Although the president has not issued more statements in total than any other president, he has challenged more than 750 laws in more than 100 signing statements. And he has used them to, in effect, challenge parts of laws, and challenge them more aggressively, than any president before him. Bush's liberal use of those statements first attracted attention in December 2005, when he signed a torture ban—but then added a statement reserving the right not to enforce the ban, alongside his signature.
In a report to be released Monday, the [American Bar Association] task force will recommend that Congress pass legislation providing for some sort of judicial review of the signing statements. Some task force members want to simply give Congress the right to sue over the signing statements; other task force members will not characterize what sort of judicial review might ultimately emerge.
"It's hard to imagine the abandonment of conservative principles in his lawlessness," said Bruce Fein, a member of the task force who voted for Bush twice and served as associate deputy attorney general under President Ronald Reagan.
At a hearing he called in late in late June to investigate the statements, Sen. Arlen Specter interrogated four testifying law professors about one remedy in particular: legislation that would allow Congress or its members to sue the president for his use of statements. Fein has been drafting such legislation ever since.
Fein's plan would begin with Congress passing legislation giving itself authority to sue the president over a statement. Then it would proceed with a lawsuit, focused on a particular statement. Under the plan, that suit would move eventually to the Supreme Court, which would then set precedent in whatever it decided.
