Alito Once Made Case For Presidential Power (for RayGun)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/01/AR2006010100788.html

As a young Justice Department lawyer, Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. tried to help tip the balance of power between Congress and the White House a little more in favor of the executive branch.

In the 1980s, the Reagan administration, like other White Houses before and after, chafed at the reality that Congress's reach on the meaning of laws extends beyond the words of statutes passed on Capitol Hill. Judges may turn to the trail of statements lawmakers left behind in the Congressional Record when trying to glean the intent behind a law. The White House left no comparable record.

In a Feb. 5, 1986, draft memo, Alito, then deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel, outlined a strategy for changing that. It laid out a case for having the president routinely issue statements about the meaning of statutes when he signs them into law.

Such "interpretive signing statements" would be a significant departure from run-of-the-mill bill signing pronouncements, which are "often little more than a press release," Alito wrote. The idea was to flag constitutional concerns and get courts to pay as much attention to the president's take on a law as to "legislative intent."

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President Bush has been especially fond of them, issuing at least 108 in his first term, according to presidential scholar Phillip J. Cooper of Portland State University in Oregon. Many of Bush's statements rejected provisions in bills that the White House regarded as interfering with its powers in national security, intelligence policy and law enforcement, Cooper wrote recently in the academic journal Presidential Studies Quarterly.

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What the hell drugs is Alito using?

If any President doesn't agree with the intent of a bill for their signing then they should veto it and express the reason(s).

The President cannot change the bill by making statements contrary to the intent of Congress. Otherwise, the President wouldn't need to veto legislation as required by the Constitution. He could say that a bill to clean up the environment makes all abortions illegal.

On the other hand Congress can pass legislation without the President signing it into law even if the President opposes it. It requires a 2/3 override in the Senate and House after the President vetoes the bill.


Alito needs to be tar and feathered.

law of the land.

with each passing revelation

pre-emptive CYA

Roberts, too. He'll deliver for the BFEE.

Every fed judiciary appt made by this illegitimate, treasonous regime should resign. Otherwise, our system is tainted.