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How many parts of the Constitution has *Co violated?

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Betsy Ross Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-02-06 03:24 AM
Original message
How many parts of the Constitution has *Co violated?
The Bill of Rights is simple. But what other parts, article and section?
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mirandapriestly Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-02-06 03:35 AM
Response to Original message
1. It's more like "What Constitution?"
because what really does the Bill of Rights or Constitution mean, if parts of it can be so readily violated?
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jamesinca Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-02-06 03:37 AM
Response to Original message
2. you can still vote at the age of 18
and the replacement of the VP has not happened, so I think those two Amendments are still ok. The rest of the Amendments are pretty much screwed. I am waiting for him to bring back prohibition, then he can violate that one also.

Seriously, I don't know, but the list is a big one I am sure.
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Betsy Ross Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-02-06 03:46 AM
Response to Reply #2
3. I really did mean this as a serious question.
It would probably be good for us to have a list as a reference.
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RoyGBiv Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-02-06 04:07 AM
Response to Reply #3
6. Sorry for my flippancy ...
The most clearly violated article is Article 2, Section 3.

"He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States."

One could offer a number of examples in which Bush has not taken care that the laws are faithfully executed, e.g. ignoring the FISA law and implementing the NSA spying on American citizens without warrant. That program violates other parts of the Constitution, as amending, but most importantly it violates the clear and direct duty of the President as declared in Article 2.

But, the really troublesome part of any of this is that Bush, and his ideological allies, have an entirely different and ahistorical understanding of what the Constution as a whole represents. As has been made clear recently by comments from various Congresspeople, among them Orin Hatch who declared rather disengenuously that Congress could not compell Bush to obey the law, Bush and company see the Constitution as empowering an Executive to manage a country much like a CEO is empowered to run a coporation. Yeah, he has advisors and a board of directors, but in the end, he tends to get what he wants, he he directs the way things are done. For all the bluster these idiots blow about "original intent," they have little understanding, or at least little willingness to accept the full implications of, what the "original intent" actually was. In this context, the construction of the Constitution is both deliberate and clear. The duties and powers of Congress are articulated in the first article. The duties and a very few powers of the Executive are articulated in the second. Congress makes laws. The Executive put those laws into action. Bush has violated that fundamental principle since the day he took office. Unfortunately, most Presidents since Jackson have done the same thing, so it's hard to make this case stick.



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RoyGBiv Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-02-06 03:47 AM
Response to Original message
4. All of them ...

Seriously, I don't know, but it would probably be easier to count how many sections they haven't violated than how many they have.

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TexasLawyer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-02-06 03:49 AM
Response to Original message
5. We don't know the full extent of the crimes
Americans only found out that Bush was ignoring FISA because that info was leaked.

Also, Bush's "signing statements" imply that he can ignore the laws he's signed as he sees fit.

Bush may be up to all manner of illegal activities. That is, other than the crimes that we already know about, including initiating a war of aggression and ignoring the Geneva Convention.
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Starfury Donating Member (615 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-02-06 06:51 AM
Response to Original message
7. Well, here's the current state of Constitution - it's now only one page...
Edited on Sun Apr-02-06 06:53 AM by Starfury
http://media.pfaw.org/constitution-for-dummies.pdf

(I wish I knew how to save it as a .gif or .jpeg.)
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Betsy Ross Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-02-06 09:40 AM
Response to Reply #7
8. Constitution for dummies
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Neil Lisst Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-02-06 09:44 AM
Response to Original message
9. 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th, 14th, amendments, to name a few
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