Another boost for presidential powers?

[struggle4progress]

11:03 PM CST on Tuesday, March 8, 2005

By MICHELLE MITTELSTADT / The Dallas Morning News

WASHINGTON – President Bush's instruction to state courts to conduct new hearings for 51 Mexicans on death row in Texas and elsewhere stands as an unusual – albeit appropriate – instruction by the executive branch to sovereign state judiciaries, some legal experts say.

"I certainly cannot offhand think of another example in which the president proposed to tell state courts what to do," said Peter M. Shane, an Ohio State University law school professor who researches separation of powers case law. <snip>

Some experts say this marks the latest example of how the Bush team has moved to expand presidential power. <snip>

http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/030905dntexpowers.3fda2.html

[ixion]

1. some legal experts say.

there's that wonderful faux attribution 'some say'. :eyes:

And in the lead, no less. This means that the story is bunk. Bush has no authority, appropriate or not, to tell soverign state courts what to do.

[struggle4progress]

2. I agree that the experts are bogus and that * has no authority ...

... to tell the Courts, state or federal, what to do, under our traditional separation of powers. But I'm not convinced the story is bunk: the Bushista power game DOES involve precisely such an attack on the independence of the judiciary.

[ixion]

3. let me rephrase that...

The fact that *'s action is 'appropriate' according to some legal experts is bunk. Sorry for being vague. ;-)