Twelve Days for Justice - Day 12

Day Twelve - Presidential Powers

From the Booman Tribune

Dear Senator,

In 1989, Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. denounced the high court's decision that year upholding a Watergate-era law that allowed independent counsels to investigate wrongdoing in the White House, arguing that the decision amounted to a ''congressional pilfering" of presidential power.

Speaking at a convention marking an anniversary of the Bill of Rights, Alito endorsed the strong view of presidential power described by Justice Antonin Scalia, the only member of the court to vote against the independent counsel law, calling Scalia's opinion ''a brilliant but very lonely dissent." Scalia argued that no president should be subject to a prosecutor who is not also answerable to that president under the Constitution.

Such remarks are highly alarming in light of the current constitutional crisis faced by the United States, where the President has not only admitted to committing an impeachable offense, but has declared his intention to continue breaking the same law. Furthermore, President Bush has asserted the power to hold prisoners without trial, shield documents, and authorize aggressive interrogations without congressional approval. Because the President has been so openly disdainful of the Constitution and rule of law in this country, I question his choice of nominee for the Supreme Court.

The advice and consent clause of the Constitution gives the Senate the vital role of asking the hard questions and, where necessary, withholding confirmation. Because of his radical right-wing judicial philosophy and the damage that his confirmation could inflict on American citizens for many years to come, I am urging you to oppose the confirmation of Samuel A. Alito Jr. to the Supreme Court.

Sincerely,

Links to an online fax service, contact info for the Senate Judiciary Committee, and a big round of thank-you's for this cross-blog protest effort can be found here.