Maybe the White House shouldn’t have praised the ABA quite so much

February 14, 2006

By one count, the White House has praised the judgment of the American Bar Association 43 times in recent years, frequently reminding reporters and the public that the ABA’s ratings are the professional “gold standard.”

Of course, the White House loves the ABA when the lawyers approve of the president’s judicial nominees. The Bush gang is probably far less fond of the group today.

The American Bar Association denounced President Bush’s warrantless domestic surveillance program Monday, accusing him of exceeding his powers under the Constitution. […]

The nation’s largest organization of lawyers adopted a policy opposing any future government use of electronic surveillance in the United States for foreign intelligence purposes without first obtaining warrants from a special court set up under the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

The 400,000-member ABA said that if the president believes the FISA is inadequate to protect Americans, he should to ask Congress to amend the act.

Maybe the White House shouldn’t have praised the ABA quite so much.

Very soon, I suspect, we’ll hear how the ABA’s been taken over by liberal bush-hating trial lawyers.

  • Chief Justice Hughs made an interesting note of federal executive overreaching as it relates to the Constitution in A. L. A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, 295 U.S. 495:

    “Extraordinary conditions do not create or enlarge constitutional power. The . . . powers of the national government are limited by the constitutional grants. Those who act under these grants are not at liberty to transcend the imposed limits because they believe that more or different power is necessary. Such assertions of extra-constitutional authority were anticipated and precluded by the explicit terms of the Tenth Amendment.”

    Remember, there are the guys who want strict interpretation and states’ rights, at least in theory. But when it comes to the president breaking the law, I guess all bets are off. I’ll try to dig up some quotes on this from Scalia and Thomas to throw in flip-flopping conservatives’ faces.

    This is yet another great example of this administration flying in the face of not just their own previous commitments, but also the fundamental beliefs of their base. First, states’ rights, and then the ABA angle.

    How the Dems aren’t up in arms is beyond me. Reacting to this group will never work, they shift too quickly. Gotta act: hit them head on.

  • how the dems don’t have commercials showing first bush praising the aba, then the aba denouncing bush, i don’t know.

  • One of the Republican party’s biggest bugaboos is trial lawyers. Do they really think they can have it both ways?

  • “How the Dems aren’t up in arms is beyond me. Reacting to this group will never work, they shift too quickly. Gotta act: hit them head on.” — eadie

    I kind of like sitting back and letting the Republicans break apart on this. It is quite entertaining to have libertarian conservatives (George Will, et al)fighting opportunitistic reactionaries (Tony Blankley, etc.) over the ‘soul’ of the Republican party.

    No need to push them back together with more than clear statements that we want to easedrop on terrorists but that it can be done within the law and constitutional requirements of the 4th amendment.

  • Do they really think they can have it both ways?

    mr. ed – I guess you’ve been in a coma the last five years? Glad you made it out ok.

  • Whenever you run across a ‘conservative’ saying he supports George Bush’s decision to wiretap international calls without a warrant from an Article III court, just say:

    “Imagine President Hillary Rodman Clinton wiretapping international calls without a warrant” 😉

    Believe me, I’m sure you could hear the Republicans screaming on the Hill about the warrantless physical search of Aldridge Ames’ computer back in the ninties. It did not take them long to amend FISA to cover physical searches, and Bill Clinton did not give them any opposition on making the change.

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