I just came across Arlen Specter's article in the New York Review of Books in which he lays out how he's going reign in executive power and restore checks and balances. Apparently the article came out the day before he announced his switch to the Democratic Party, and it seems to have got lost in the shuffle. Here's his agenda:
legislation that will mandate Supreme Court review of lower court
decisions in suits brought by the ACLU and others that challenge the
constitutionality of the warrantless wiretapping program authorized by
President Bush after September 11. While the Supreme Court generally
exercises discretion on whether it will review a case, there are
precedents for Congress to direct Supreme Court review on
constitutional issues—including the statutes forbidding flag burning
and requiring Congress to abide by federal employment laws—and I will
follow those.
Second, I will reintroduce legislation to keep the courts open to suits
filed against several major telephone companies that allegedly
facilitated the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program.
Although Congress granted immunity to the telephone companies in July
2008, this issue may yet be successfully revisited since the courts
have not yet ruled on the legality of the immunity provision. My
legislation would substitute the government as defendant in place of
the telephone companies. This would allow the cases to go forward, with
the government footing the bill for any damages awarded.
Further, I will reintroduce my legislation from 2006 and 2007 (the
"Presidential Signing Statements Act") to prohibit courts from relying
on, or deferring to, presidential signing statements when determining
the meaning of any Act of Congress. These statements, sometimes issued
when the president signs a bill into law, have too often been used to
undermine congressional intent. Earlier versions of my legislation went
nowhere because of the obvious impossibility of obtaining two-thirds
majorities in each house to override an expected veto by President
Bush. Nevertheless, in the new Congress, my legislation has a better
chance of mustering a majority vote and being signed into law by
President Obama.
I'll take back every nasty thing I have ever said about Specter if
he sticks to his guns and makes this happen. But as I said in my post
last week about Specter, he often says the right thing but doesn't
follow through. He talks about some of that in the article that follows the material excerpted above. Now there might be something going on here I'm not savvy enough to see, but I'll assume the best for the time being. Maybe now he's a Democrat he won't have to cave to the
pressure he was feeling while a Republican. We'll see. But he
deserves credit for at the very least keeping these issues on the
legislative table. I'll be monitoring where this goes in the coming months.
Leave a Reply