Judge Rightfully Rebukes Bush Privilege
August 2nd, 2008
Yet another court admonished one of the Bush administration’s many executive power grabs yesterday, this time ruling that senior administration officials are not necessarily immune from congressional subpoenas. Less than two months after the Supreme Court’s Boumediene decision, which said that the Bush administration did not have unfettered authority to shape detainee policy, D.C. District Court Judge John Bates said that the president and his advisors are also not above congressional oversight.
As we wrote on our Justice Watch blog yesterday, Judge Bates agreed with House Democrats that general invocations of executive privilege do not relieve administration officials from having to answer congressional inquiries, particularly subpoenas. Appointed by President Bush in 2001 and selected by Chief Justice John Roberts to serve on the clandestine FISA court in 2004, Judge Bates is certainly no liberal, but even he recognizes the importance of congressional oversight in our system of checks and balances, noting that “[t]he Executive’s current claim of absolute immunity…for senior presidential aides is without any support in the case law.”
As I noted yesterday, Judge Bates’ decision “is a victory for our constitutional system of checks and balances. [His] ruling was a necessary rebuke to this administration, which has bent, twisted and ignored the law in an effort to assert unfettered executive privilege and power. Alliance for Justice applauds [yesterday’s] decision for placing constitutional prerogatives ahead of partisan politics.”
Of course, victory in this battle doesn’t necessarily mean we’ve won the war. As we’ve seen time and again, the Bush administration is running an offensive based on running down the clock. Yesterday’s decision did not include any timeline suggesting when Ms. Miers should appear before Congress and many expect the administration to appeal the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit – by all accounts a more hospitable (i.e. conservative) audience. Still, yesterday’s rebuke of this president’s arrogant dismissal of any limits on his authority marks a huge victory for our Constitution and the rule of law in this nation.
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