Shorter Verbatim John Yoo and John Bolton: “Constitutional principles seem to be mere inconveniences to Mr. Obama, however.” They, however, have a very principled argument. Admittedly, in this case Obama is doing something plainly within the power of the executive branch — directing military and intelligence agencies how to act in ways that contravene no […]
Tag: the arbitrary executive
Bazelon’s piece gets right to the heart of the issue: If you want to believe that the government does its grim best to fight terrorists, and you’re inclined to think that their dirty tactics j
I recommend both Kevin and Adam. The standards laid out for when a targeted killing can be justified are not, in themselves, unreasonable: First, the U.S. government has determined, after a thorough a
Clearly, anyone who is more concerned with arbitrary executive authority than Ben Wittes must be lying.
As Charlie Savage and Adam Serwer point out, the Senate yesterday decided to punt on the question of whether the executive can arbitrarily and indefinitely detain American citizens simply by declaring
The fact that our security theater is being manned by perverts certainly makes me feel safer!
If there is an isolated terrorist attack, then there needs to be an expansion of the national security state. If a terrorist leader is killed, then there needs to be an expansion of the national security state. Related, obviously, is the hand-waving about torture being essential to the Bin Laden operation despite a complete absence […]
Ben Wittes believes that the new leaks about Gitmo are embarrassing because the government couldn’t keep important secrets, and are inconsistent with the civil liberties of the persons who are,
I generally agree with Mark Tushnet that Robert Jackson is overrated. But I also agree that he did have a talent for good lines, and this bit from his famous-if-overrated Steel Seizures concurrence wa
More on Connick v. Thompson. I would excerpt, except that it might provide a disincentive to Read the Whole Thing. I’m glad that Lithwick highlights the remarkable Scalia concurrence, which of course was joined by the most reactionary Supreme Court justice since James McReynolds. Scalia and Alito actually take a more authoritarian position than […]
I’ll have a bigger piece about the subject next week, but as I’ve said before, to assert that presidential initiations of military force — whether wise or unwise — violate the
I can’t add much to Greenwald, but it’s appalling that the only person losing their job over the arbitrary torture of Bradley Manning is someone who opposed it.