Bar Association Urges Congress To SUE BUSH Over Signing Statements

[kpete]

Bar association task force urges Congress to consider suing Bush over signing statements
By Elizabeth Weiss Green

Posted 7/21/06


George W. Bush did not invent the document known as the presidential signing statement; he inherited it. Franklin Roosevelt, Bill Clinton, and even James Monroe, in 1830, authored the statements, which spell out the president's sometimes controversial interpretation of the very law he's signing. But no president has used signing statements quite like Bush.

Although the president has not issued more statements in total than any other president, he has challenged more than 750 laws in more than 100 signing statements. And he has used them to, in effect, challenge parts of laws, and challenge them more aggressively, than any president before him. Bush's liberal use of those statements first attracted attention in December 2005, when he signed a torture ban—but then added a statement reserving the right not to enforce the ban, alongside his signature. Since then, Congress has held a hearing to investigate Bush's use of the statements, a bipartisan advocacy group has condemned their use, and Democratic Rep. Barney Frank has introduced a bill that would allow Congress to override content in them that contradicts signed legislation.

Now, U.S. News has learned, an American Bar Association task force is set to suggest even stronger action. In a report to be released Monday, the task force will recommend that Congress consider suing the president. To mount a legal case, a person or group must have been granted "standing," or the right to file a lawsuit. Current law does not grant members of Congress such a right, and recent Supreme Court decisions have denied it in all but very exceptional cases. But Congress could—and should—consider bypassing that hurdle by writing a law to give its members the right to sue, a resolution in the task force's report declares, according to a copy of the report obtained by U.S. News. The resolution cannot become official aba policy without approval from the group's legislative body, scheduled to meet in Hawaii next month.

MORE AT:
http://www.rawstory.com/showarticle.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.usnews.com%2Fusnews%2Fnews%2Farticles%2F060721%2F21signing.htm

[grannylib]

1. Sue him, impeach him, try him for treason, but for God's sake, attach

all OTHER rePiglicans to the Piglet in Chief and let's get RID of these corrupt liars and killers and thieves, oh my....

[Monkeyman]

2. Dam all you left me is put his butt in jail

[William Seger]

3. Sue? IMPEACH, or just go home!

[dweller]

4. i believe they have tried, or are trying to do this on other matters

Conyers is active on suing over the budget bill, and for signing into law a bill that never passed the house (or was changed by the senate, and not re-considered in the house).

http://talkleft.com/new_archives/014683.html

not sure how it turned out, or is still being considered in the courts.

dp

[chill_wind]

5. I look forward to Monday a great deal. K&R n/t