So Much for the President's Assent to the McCain Amendment

[realFedUp]

http://balkin.blogspot.com/2006/01/so-much-for-presidents-assent-to.html

So Much for the President's Assent to the McCain Amendment

Marty Lederman

The President signed the Defense Appropriations bill on Friday. In his signing statement he did at least two notable things.

First, with respect to several provisions of the bill, the President signaled his intention to reserve his authority, as Commander in Chief, to ignore statutory mandates. These include provisions that require advance notice of congressional committees before the use of funds to initiate a special access program, a new overseas installation, or a new start program; and a "report and wait" provision that requires the President to wait 15 days after notifying six congressional committees before using certain appropriations to transfer defense articles or services to another nation or an international organization for international peacekeeping, peace enforcement, or humanitarian assistance operations.

Most importantly, as to the McCain Amendment, which would categorically prohibit cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of detainees by all U.S. personnel, anywhere in the world, the President wrote:

The executive branch shall construe Title X in Division A of the Act, relating to detainees, in a manner consistent with the constitutional authority of the President to supervise the unitary executive branch and as Commander in Chief and consistent with the constitutional limitations on the judicial power, which will assist in achieving the shared objective of the Congress and the President, evidenced in Title X, of protecting the American people from further terrorist attacks.

Translation: I reserve the constitutional right to waterboard when it will "assist" in protecting the American people from terrorist attacks.

continued

[orwell]

1. Reality doesn't matter...

...only perception.

After all, this is the United States.

[realFedUp]

2. what does that mean anymore....

:shrug:

[realFedUp]

3. Shouldn't this be front page news somewhere?

Bills get signed with codicils by the pResident
and there's no information about that?

[depakid]

4. Incredible-

This guy really does believe he's above the law. There's no more denying it at this point.

If the Dems don't start acting like Dems again- if they keep up with Republican lite, then with chronic energy shortages on the horizon- historians really will write that December 12, 2000 marked the end of the American Republic.

Guess some of us had a notion that was coming someday, back during the Reagan administration....

[bemildred]

5. The Bushites don't have a choice.

If they are accountable at all, there is a whole bunch of stuff they are accountable for ...