Author: Leland Milton Goldblatt (---.client.insightBB.com)
Date: 11-13-04 10:13
He just does not get it. Leland Milton Goldblatt
Ashcroft says judges threaten national security by questioning Bush decisions
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Federal judges are jeopardizing national security by issuing rulings contradictory to President Bush's decisions on America's obligations under international treaties and agreements, Attorney General John Ashcroft said Friday.
In his first remarks since his resignation was announced Tuesday, Ashcroft forcefully denounced what he called "a profoundly disturbing trend" among some judges to interfere in the president's constitutional authority to make decisions during war.
"The danger I see here is that intrusive judicial oversight and second-guessing of presidential determinations in these critical areas can put at risk the very security of our nation in a time of war," Ashcroft said in a speech to the Federalist Society, a conservative lawyers' group.
The Justice Department announced this week it would seek to overturn a ruling by U.S. District Judge James Robertson in the case of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, who the government contends was Osama bin Laden's driver.
Robertson halted Hamdan's trial by military commission in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, rejecting the Bush administration's position that the Geneva Conventions governing prisoners of war do not apply to al-Qaida members because they are not soldiers of a true state and do not fight by international norms.
Without mentioning that case specifically, Ashcroft criticized rulings he said found "expansive private rights in treaties where they never existed" that run counter to the broad discretionary powers given the president by the Constitution.
"Courts are not equipped to execute the law. They are not accountable to the people," Ashcroft said.
During his successful re-election campaign, Bush repeatedly promised to appoint judges who would adhere to strict interpretations of the Constitution. In addition to numerous lower courts, Bush is likely to appoint at least one and perhaps several justices to the Supreme Court during the next four years.
The administration lost a crucial legal battle this year when a divided Supreme Court determined the president lacks the authority to hold terror suspects classified as enemy combatants indefinitely with no access to lawyers or the ability to challenge their detention.
Ashcroft intends to remain as attorney general until his nominated successor, Alberto Gonzales, is confirmed by the Senate.
Shalom,
---Leland Milton Goldblatt, Ph.D. ®
Distinguished Professor
http://www.prof.faithweb.com
http://drgoldblatt.blogspot.com/
"How can 59,054,087 people be so DUMB?" asked the headline of the Daily Mirror in Great Britain, and the underlying assumption is undeniable. By any objective standard, you had to be spectacularly stupid to support Bush.
Bush, whose Administration drummed up fake evidence to trick Americans into war with Iraq, putting US troops in an immoral position with no exit strategy, won on "moral issues".
The President says he is "humbled" and wants to reach out to the whole country. What humbug. The Bushes are always gracious until they don't get their way. If W. didn't reach out after the last election, which he barely grabbed, why would he reach out now that he has what Dick Cheney calls a "broad, nationwide victory"?
Religious right believes Bush truly is the candidate of God. Well, the Folks In Heaven's Gate thought the Hale-Bopp comet would take them away. We all know how THAT turned out.
If you kill one innocent human being it is murder. If you slaughter thousands, it is "regime change."
The Reverend Leland Milton Goldblatt one of America’s foremost civil rights, religious and political figures. Over the past fifty years he has played a pivotal role in virtually every movement for empowerment, peace, civil rights, gender equality, and economic and social justice. Reverend Leland Milton Goldblatt has been called the “Conscience of the Nation” and “the Great Unifier.
But politics happens before history and, as the first Republican president said long ago, you can fool some of the people all of the time. All that takes is a contempt for the idea of democracy. It does not matter what you tell people if you believe they will probably not understand and probably not care when they realize they were deliberately deceived.
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