Impeach

So much for the Torture Act, and the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and FISA, and the federal assault statute, and the War Crimes Act, and the 60-day-limit provision of the War Powers Act, and now the McCain Amendment prohibiting cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of detainees overseas.

And who knows how many other laws . . . ? There's an important recent article written by presidential scholar Phillip J. Cooper of Portland State University. 35 Pres. Studies Q. 515 (2005). (Abstract and order form here.) Cooper explains how the Bush Administration has used signing statements to signal that it is reserving the right to ignore numerous enacted statutes. In Bush's first term alone, he offered 505 constitutional objections to various statutory provisions -- and many of those objections apply to multiple provisions within a particular bill. Moreover, many of the objections are written in such general terms that it is difficult to know just what they mean in terms of how the Administration is implementing the law.

Of course, some of these objections would have been made in any Administration, of either party. (Chadha violations, for example.) Indeed, I drafted my share of signing statements with constitutional objections in the Clinton Administration. I am not arguing that Presidents may not object to legislation, or even that Presidents must always implement statutes -- there are times when nonenforcement of unconstitutional statutes may be appropriate (a broader subject for another time).

But I can assure you, and as Prof. Cooper's study shows, this Administration has gone far, far beyond anything we've previously seen, not only in terms of sheer numbers, but with respect to the breadth and scope of the substance of the Article II objections that it makes to enacted legislation (e.g., unitary executive, Commander-in-Chief, appointments clause (objecting to, e.g., uncontroversial qualifications on appointments), recommendations clause, plenary authority over foreign affairs, right to keep everything secret from Congress, etc.)....