Bankruptcy

Not Only Does the Bill Cost 700 Billion to 1 Trillion Dollars?it Gives Unreviewable Power to the Executive Branch

By J. Michael McBride

Buried in at least one of the proposed legislation to fix our economy is a provision which states that all acts by the Treasury Secretary are somehow not reviewable by any Court of law. This is troubling as it sounds like the passage of some other recent bills which had to be done ASAP in a time when people were full of fear and there allegedly was not time to actually read the provisions of the bill—which not shockingly gave extensive additional powers to the federal government.

Here is a link to a very interesting “conversation” with Steven Pearlstein and Alan Blinder (an ex Federal reserve Board Member) with Charlie Rose: http://www.charlierose.com/shows/2008/09/22/1/an-exclusive-conversation-with-vikram-pandit

“The Constitutionality of the plan is being hotly debated, according to Frank James, writing on the Chicago Trib's blog:

Troubling to many critics is the breathtaking extraconstitutionality of the proposal which would give the Treasury secretary unusual powers that couldn't be countermanded by Congress or the courts.

That appears on its face to violate the Constitution's assertion of a balance of powers where no one branch is unchecked by the others.

James goes on to quote Alan Blinder, "former Federal Reserve vice chair and normally a mild-mannered, live-and-let-live Princeton University economics professor," who said Paulson should be booted out of office for his proposal ...

"I'm speaking now as one of the earliest advocates of creating an institution like this, many, many months ago. And it's a crying shame to see the way the Treasury has written this. I think the secretary of the Treasury should be dismissed, frankly. ... Asking for the authority to buy anything, with no review, with no court review, with no limits practically as to quantity or scope, with almost no congressional oversight. We have something more precious at stake than our precious financial system and that's our precious Constitution. And frankly, if I were a member of Congress, having advocated for this for nine or ten months, I would vote against this unless it's changed, dramatically..."

…

“Section 8 of the draft legislation released on Saturday reads, in its entirety:

Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.”

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/99876/?page=1

Michael

Full post as published by Texas Lawyer Blog on September 24, 2008 (boomark / email).