Dartblog

Jack Balkin, enraged that his Democrats failed to defeat the terrorist surveillance bill, writes: “The passage of the new FISA bill by the Senate and now the House demonstrates that the Democrats stand neither for defending civil liberties nor for checking executive power. They stand for nothing at all… . I hope the Democrats are justly proud of themselves for their cowardly contributions to this slow-motion destruction of our constitutional system.”

Fortunately, having read Balkin’s constitutional law textbook, I am now equipped to offer this question in response: Just how is it a “slow-motion destruction of our constitutional system” for Congress to pass a law arrogating more power to the Executive? Would it similarly be a “destruction” for the President to defer unnecessarily to Congress, effectively rendering it more power than it was given in the Constitution?

Or, is it only when a branch run by liberals cedes power to a branch run by conservatives that we have a problem?