Feingold's letter to the editor - SEPT 24, 2006
Dave C
In response to the outlandish Op-Ed from John Yoo that supported
increased powers for the president, including saying it's OK for the
president to break the law.
September 24, 2006
The President and the Law (1 Letter)
To the Editor:
John Yoo, a former deputy assistant attorney general in the Bush
administration, acknowledges that President Bush's unique approach to
the law, which the president has insisted is necessary to fight
terrorism, is motivated by the "broader'' goal of strengthening
executive power (Op-Ed, Sept. 17).
Mr. Yoo cites this goal as a reason the administration has fought a
"pre-emptive'' war, "data-mined communications in the United
States to root out terrorism,'' detained terrorists without
"formal'' charges and conducted "harsh'' interrogations.
The agenda includes the reclassification of government information and
the withholding of information from Congress and the courts, and has
been buttressed by the president's "signing statements,'' which
Mr. Yoo asserts claim the president's right not to enforce
"unconstitutional'' laws.
In our system of government, it is the courts that determine the
constitutionality of laws, not the president.
But Mr. Yoo takes his argument further, asserting that the president
can ignore laws like the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act because
they have produced "dysfunction.'' Indeed, according to Mr. Yoo,
the president can ignore both laws and judicial decisions that he deems
"wrongheaded'' or "obsolete.''
These views are clearly offensive to our constitutional system. It is
long past time for Congress to reassert its proper role in checking an
executive branch that has so little respect for the principles that
have sustained our democracy for more than 200 years.
Russ Feingold
U.S. Senator from Wisconsin
Washington, Sept. 19, 2006