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: Marjorie Cohn

What About Constitutional Powers?

By Marjorie Cohn

Institute for Public Accuracy
915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org
___________________________________________________

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

What About Constitutional Powers? Two Views

MARJORIE COHN, Libertad48@san.rr.com, http://www.marjoriecohn.com
Cohn is the president of the National Lawyers Guild, a professor at
Thomas Jefferson School of Law and the author of "Cowboy Republic: Six
Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law." She recently wrote the piece "A
Palin Theocracy."

Cohn said today: "The next president will almost certainly appoint
one to three justices to the Supreme Court, which is now delicately
balanced politically. The most likely justices to retire are John Paul
Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter. John McCain, who voted to confirm Robert Bork, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts and Samuel Alito, has vowed to appoint more justices like Roberts and Alito to the high court.

One McCain appointee would tip the balance of the Court to the right
which would likely overturn Roe v. Wade and decisions protecting the
rights of workers and the environment, and decisions curbing the power
of the executive. Barack Obama voted against the confirmation of Roberts
and Alito, and has promised to appoint justices like Ginsburg and
Stephen Breyer. Even if Obama made three appointments, he would not tip the political balance of the Court to the left, but would maintain the
status quo since he would likely be replacing the 'liberals.'"

BRUCE FEIN, bruce@thelichfieldgroup.com
Author of the new book "Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death
Struggle for our Constitution and Democracy," Fein said today: "It's
disgraceful that core constitutional questions have been virtually
ignored in this election. Neither McCain nor Obama have indicated that
they will move to a constitutional government and away from executive
government.

"They have both said they would close Guantanamo, but that's really
meaningless since they both assert the right to hold so-called 'enemy
combatants' without charge, so they could simply move the people being
detained to another facility.

"Both maintain that the executive can initiate war. Both -- like
Bush now -- have said that they would not allow further waterboarding
and that it is torture, but neither has said that they would prosecute
the conceded waterboarding of the Bush administration. Likewise, neither
has said they would prosecute members of the current administration for
other criminal conduct, such as well-known criminal violations of the
FISA statute. Neither Obama nor McCain has disclaimed the authority
claimed by Bush to order current or former White House officials to defy
congressional subpoena."

Fein recently wrote the piece "Palin vs. Palin."
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20081009_palin_vs_palin/?ln

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Full post as published by Marjorie Cohn on October 29, 2008 (boomark / email).