Name: Robert Earle
Hometown: Torrance, CA
RE: 'signing statements' Through a link from some blog or another (Atrios?), I came across this posting, which in turn quotes this Knight-Ridder article as saying that the use of such "signing statements" has become so frequent under Mr. Bush that "in 2003, lawmakers tried to get a handle on Bush's use of signing statements by passing a Justice Department spending bill that required the department to inform Congress whenever the administration decided to ignore a legislative provision on constitutional grounds. Bush signed the bill, but issued a statement asserting his right to ignore the notification requirement." Unbelievable, isn't it? Under King George the Infallible, we not only have imperialism, we have meta-imperialism!
I think this signing-statements thing is out of control. It is a great reason not to put Alito on the court. We need people (on the Supreme Court and in Congress) that will challenge the president's power.
Checking the power of an overly strong executive was the entire point of the Constitution. If you do not agree with that, you do not agree with freedom in general and the founding theory of America specifically.
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