Guess which Democratic activist said this:
If you interpret the Constitution’s saying that the president is commander in chief to mean that the president can do anything he wants and can ignore the laws you don’t have a constitution: you have a king. They’re not trying to change the law; they’re saying that they’re above the law and in the case of the NSA wiretaps they break it.”
Answer at the jump. No, I can’t quite believe it, either.
Hat tip: Progressive Blog Digest.
PBD, which is available by email subscription as well as on-line, is my one indispensible read every day.
Grover Norquist
Author: Jonathan Zasloff
Jonathan Zasloff teaches Torts, Land Use, Environmental Law, Comparative Urban Planning Law, Legal History, and Public Policy Clinic - Land Use, the Environment and Local Government. He grew up and still lives in the San Fernando Valley, about which he remains immensely proud (to the mystification of his friends and colleagues). After graduating from Yale Law School, and while clerking for a federal appeals court judge in Boston, he decided to return to Los Angeles shortly after the January 1994 Northridge earthquake, reasoning that he would gladly risk tremors in order to avoid the average New England wind chill temperature of negative 55 degrees.
Professor Zasloff has a keen interest in world politics; he holds a PhD in the history of American foreign policy from Harvard and an M.Phil. in International Relations from Cambridge University. Much of his recent work concerns the influence of lawyers and legalism in US external relations, and has published articles on these subjects in the New York University Law Review and the Yale Law Journal. More generally, his recent interests focus on the response of public institutions to social problems, and the role of ideology in framing policy responses.
Professor Zasloff has long been active in state and local politics and policy. He recently co-authored an article discussing the relationship of Proposition 13 (California's landmark tax limitation initiative) and school finance reform, and served for several years as a senior policy advisor to the Speaker of California Assembly. His practice background reflects these interests: for two years, he represented welfare recipients attempting to obtain child care benefits and microbusinesses in low income areas. He then practiced for two more years at one of Los Angeles' leading public interest environmental and land use firms, challenging poorly planned development and working to expand the network of the city's urban park system. He currently serves as a member of the boards of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy (a state agency charged with purchasing and protecting open space), the Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice (the leading legal service firm for low-income clients in east Los Angeles), and Friends of Israel's Environment. Professor Zasloff's other major activity consists in explaining the Triangle Offense to his very patient wife, Kathy.
View all posts by Jonathan Zasloff
From TFA: "Bush claims the power to execute the laws as he interprets them, ignoring congressional intent."
Those republicans are yet going to regret their penchant for executive activism. Find any republican screed on judicial activism and do a search and replace. Then film your campaign commercials.
Norquist. Now I'll check if I'm right.
Sweet Jesus.
Norquist is apparently an honest conservative who is loyal to principle first, not to a person who belongs to his party but abuses principle. This contrasts with the feminists who defended Clinton's sexual harassment.
There are two sorts of king: absolute like Cyrus, Louis XIV and Peter the Great, and constitutional like Augustus, Alfred of Wessex, William the Silent and George III. George Bush's legal pretensions are closer to those of absolute monarchy.