Posted by Did we all overlook this at the time (2 weeks ago)?
U.S. Rep. Artur Davis questions Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Elwood during a House Judiciary Committee hearing (Jan. 31) on Bush’s use of signing statements:
Davis asked whether it was Elwood’s position that if the president thinks a law unconstitutional he should not follow it?
Elwood: yes.
Davis then said that Alabama had a Governor once who thought letting black people vote was unconstitutional. How, Davis asked, is that different from the president’s position?
Elwood avoided an answer.
Davis asked again.
Elwood said that governors are subject to federal law.
Davis asked whether presidents are not subject to the law as well?
Elwood said only if the Supreme Court has ruled.
Davis asked why the President’s interpretive power would exceed the Congress’s.
Elwood hemmed and hawed.
The whole article is interesting.
You may know that this president has used signing statements far more than any predecessor to “to ignore or reinterpret provisions of measures that he has signed into law.”
Legislative Dispatch
Purple Dot Connection
2010 Big List
2010 Senate Elections
2010 House Elections
Press Releases
Not to mention… Any signing statements made by his predecessors were more of a, “I like part X,” than a, “This part doesn’t apply to me.”
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Alabama Moderate, thanks for your good comment. I don’t know why I had to fish it out of the spam filter.
For some reaon, I’m ending up in a lot of those, lately…
And again. Sorry for that. I have no idea why it does that. The filter is supposed to “learn.”
It’s not your fault. It seems to be prominent on WordPress blogs, though. Just wierd.