I have sometimes bristled at the arguments presented by Geroge Will, and his dig at Obama seems particularly unneeccessary in his piece, nevertheless, I find myself very sympathetic to his arguments today. A must read in these troubled times.
The most important part of the piece is the linkage between economic regulation, executive power, and the [...]

The Washington Post reports that the Inspector General’s report indicates that high ranking Justice Department officials routiney violated civl service and Federal ethics standards in their hiring and promotion practices. I have two initial reactions to this. The first is that the impropriety of the Machiavellian literalness (see Harvey Mansfield’s books on “Taming the Prince” [...]

This has been posted a lot of places, but I want to post it here in case someone has not seen it, and also so I can search my own blog to find it. It is two flowcharts that show the changes made to the FISA process in the new compromise bill.

Do believers in the unitary executive believe that the Constitution somehow supercedes the Congressional power to designate particular bureacracies and their activities?  Here’s what I don’t get: I do not see how the Unitary Theory of the Executive makes the President the unrestricted “boss” of the whole executive branch without invalidating the bureacracies themselves.  If [...]

Again, I write this as a person with no formal legal training, so you should take my opinions as one who could certainly be rebutted with things that I am simply not aware of.  The interesting thing to me about Heller is that it seems to be a decision on principle which is entirely consistent [...]

I’ll tip my hand by the way I frame these quotes in terms of my view of the decision:
Chief Justice Roberts, Dissenting:
It is grossly premature to pronounce on the detainees’ right to habeas without first assessing whether the remedies the DTA system provides vindicate whatever rights petitioners may claim.
Hamdi concluded that American citizens detained as enemy combatants [...]

The framework of the decision:
Based on this language from Eisentrager, and the reasoning in our other extraterritoriality opinions, we conclude that at least three factors are relevant in determining the reach of the Suspension Clause: (1) the citizenship and status of the detainee and the adequacy of the process through which that status determination was made; (2) the nature of [...]

From SCOTUSblog:
In a stunning blow to the Bush Administration in its war-on-terrorism policies, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday that foreign nationals held at Guantanamo Bay have a right to pursue habeas challenges to their detention. The Court, dividing 5-4, ruled that Congress had not validly taken away habeas rights.  If Congress wishes to suspend habeas, it [...]

We should not, I think, underestimate how utterly disastrous it would be for the Executive Branch to get its way with its newest outrageous claims of executive privilege.  Most terrifying of all is the following paragraph:
David B. Rifkin, who worked in the Justice Department and White House counsel’s office under presidents Ronald Reagan and George [...]

Congress has issued subpoenas to the White House regarding the NSA wiretapping program.  The administration’s attempts to spin this story, first as a leak of crucial information by the New York Times, now as a revenge fantasy of the Democratic party, are looking thinner and thinner as news stories pile up about the role of [...]