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Balkinizing the FISA Bill
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?
Featured posts
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October 18, 2009
When Love Beckoned in 52nd Street
We were at San Francisco’s BIX last evening, enjoying prosecco, cheese, and a bit of music. A full year of inhabitation in Northern California has unraveled to me no decent venue for proper lounging, but… -
October 9, 2009
D Afraid of a Little Competish
So our colleague and Dartblog writer Joe Asch informed me that the D has rejected our cunning advertising campaign. Uh-oh. The Dartmouth is widely known as a breeding ground for instant New York Times successes,… -
September 4, 2009
How Regents Should Reign
As Dartmouth alumni proceed through the legal hoops necessary to defuse a Board-packing plan—which put in unhappy desuetude an historic 1891 Agreement between alumni and the College guaranteeing a half-democratically-elected Board of Trustees—it strikes one… -
August 29, 2009
Election Reform Study Committee
If you are an alum of the College on the Hill, you may have received a number of e-mails of late beseeching your input for a new arm of the College’s Alumni Control Apparatus called… -
August 23, 2009
Fare Thee Well, Tom Crady
And now Dean Tom Crady has precipitously announced his departure from the College after only 20 months on the job. How to read this? By way of background, prior to coming to Dartmouth, Crady had… -
May 31, 2009
Kangaroo Court, Indeed
In an interview with The Dartmouth, alumni-elected trustee T.J. Rodgers ‘70 explained his reasons for declining to participate in future evaluations of trustees up for “re-election,” namely the “kangaroo court” nature of such discussion in…