Bush Moves Towards Martial Law - DEBUNKED [ more meaningless? djf]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Seth Finkelstein <[email protected]>
Date: October 31, 2006 2:07:16 PM EST
To: David Farber <[email protected]>
Cc: [email protected], Jeff Faria <[email protected]>
Subject: Bush Moves Towards Martial Law - DEBUNKED

Much analysis here:
http://www.discourse.net/archives/2006/10/ 
crazy_times_martial_law_edition.html

"Laws like this are always troubling because there is no practical way
to challenge their application. Unless it were willing to strike down
the statute as a standardless delegation - a nearly moribund doctrine -
it is very hard to see a court telling the President that, say, the
chaos in New Orleans after the flood, or even the limited violence in
Florida in 2000 when GOP operatives attacked the ballot counters,
didn't rise to a level that "opposes or obstructs the execution of the
laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those
laws." The courts are going to label that a political question, or
find some other excuse for the courts to duck the matter.

But while this sort of executive discretion is always a problem for
democratic rule, as I hope I've shown by juxtaposing the old language
and the new it's not a new problem, not at all. "

-- 
Seth Finkelstein  Consulting Programmer   http://sethf.com
Infothought blog - http://sethf.com/infothought/blog/
Interview: http://sethf.com/essays/major/greplaw-interview.php