Alito Lurks Behind Bush Bypass of Torture Ban

The HuffPo homepage editors are rightly characterizing Bush's move to simultaneously enact and nullify a ban on torturing detainees as giving the finger to the law itself.

Perhaps of greater importance is Supreme Court nominee Sam Alito's connections to Bush's dictator-esque maneuver.

The short story: when Bush signed the torture ban into law, he also asserted that no body, not even the Supreme Court, has any Constitutional power to stop him from treating detainees as he sees fit. The concept that the president holds such unchecked, unbalanced power is known as the "unitary executive" theory.

And who is a big fan of the "unitary executive" theory? Why Sam Alito!

How convenient that Bush may get a guy on the Supreme Court's swing seat who doesn't believe he has full authority to stop the president from breaking the law or violating the Constitution.

For a more detailed explanation of Alito's connections to Bush's torture move, check out this post on LiberalOasis.