Checks and Balances
by Groff Schroeder
Centuries of unchecked power wielded by oft-feuding
English kings, church leaders and wealthy landholders led eventually
to the need for limitations on regal power, and thus the Magna Carta
Liberatum, the Great Charter of Freedoms of 1215. The Magna Carta
founded basic human freedoms such as habeas corpus, which compels
any power holding a person for a crime to bring that person to a
court, and show them the evidence against them.
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America's founders appear to have opposed great concentrations
of power and held great respect for the ideals of human freedom,
creating a Bill of Rights defining the freedoms of the People, and
a Constitution employing numerous checks and balances such as a
"Separation of Powers" among the legislative, the executive and
judicial branches.
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The executive branch, led by the president, enforces
the law. Article IV defines the "…Constitution, and the Laws of
the United States…and…Treaties…under the Authority of the United
States…as the…supreme Law of the Land…any Thing in the Constitution
or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding."
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The Congress' Senate and House of Representatives
declare war, write legislation, and check presidential power through
the "power of the purse," or control over the money. The judicial
branch checks power by interpreting legislation passed by Congress
and signed into law by the president. The Supreme Court decides
cases related to the Federal Government and interstate disputes
and can declare legislation or executive action unconstitutional.
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Article II, Section 4 states, "The President, Vice
President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be
removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason,
Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors."
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In 1861, with battle lines at Bull Run just 30 miles
from Washington DC, President Lincoln revoked habeas corpus. Although
the Supreme Court ruled the revocation unconstitutional, Lincoln
denied habeas corpus until Congress legalized the revocation in
1863 (apparently without consulting Article I, which prohibits "ex
post facto" laws). Unlike President Lincoln, President Bush's claims
of extra legal power are numerous, and extend beyond the Constitution,
violating US law, international law, and ratified treaties. Not
even tenuous precedent allows Congress to retroactively legalize
President Bush and Vice President Cheney's violations of the Geneva
Conventions forbidding aggressive war and torture, both of which
the conventions define as "war crimes."
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Sadly, the legislative and judicial branches have
not challenged President Bush's astonishing violations of the rule
of law, his regular use of "signing statements" documenting his
intention to ignore (and ostensibly violate) legislation he signs
into law, or the numerous actions through which his administration
appears to recklessly and contemptuously violate the Constitution,
US and international law. In contrast, President Clinton faced impeachment,
(not conviction) for allegedly lying in a lawsuit about consensual
sex.
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Could the founders have imagined one president being
impeached for lying about a personal matter in a civil suit while
his successor appears immune from any responsibility whatsoever after
being repeatedly caught red-handed in appalling official lies and
egregious violations of law? |
Just as the impeachment of President Clinton exposed
other politicians' extra-marital affairs, the impeachment of President
Bush and Vice President Cheney might finally collapse the apparent
concerted destruction of all checks on governmental power by corrupt
"representatives" and judges who appear to be systematically destroying
America's most basic founding ideals.
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Freethinkers of Colorado Springs
P.O. Box 62946
Colorado Springs, CO 80962-2946
Phone: 719-594-4506
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