Litigation

Conyers Issues Report on ?Imperial Presidency?

By Deanna Dawson

On Tuesday, House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) published a 487-page report entitled, “Reining in the Imperial Presidency: Lessons and Recommendations Relating to the presidency of George W. Bush.”

The tone of the report is perhaps best exemplified by its definition of the term ?Imperial Presidency?:

?Imperial Presidency? is a term used to embody a fervently held anti-democratic belief system, rooted in a constitutionally unsupportable view of the president?s power vis-à-vis the Congress, the courts, and the people of the United States.

The report?s foreword, authored by Rep. Conyers, contains a scathing attack on the Bush Administration?s view of executive authority:

The Bush Administration?s approach to power is, at its core, little more than a restatement of Mr. Nixon?s famous rationalization of presidential misdeeds: ?When the president does it, that means it?s not illegal.? Under this view, laws that forbid torturing or degrading prisoners cannot constrain the president because, if the president ordered such acts as Commander in Chief, ?that means it?s not illegal.? Under this view, it is not the courts that decide the reach of the law ? it is the president ? and neither the judiciary nor Congress can constrain him.

The report itself contains 47 policy recommendations to the Obama Administration (more…)

Full post as published by The Gavel on January 15, 2009 (boomark / email).