Checks and Balances

"I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are ...

The Justice Department's release of on Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) opinion regarding President Obama's recess appointments power is a welcome display of public accountability. However one analyzes the bottom line, the opinion is a model of the genre.

Members of Congress have abdicated to the president their constitutional responsibilities because of slavish devotion, staggering constitutional illiteracy, and a vassal-like conviction that the executive branch knows best.

Barack Obama could become the George Washington of a next era for the country -- but he's going to have to learn how to be less acquiescent to the political weather.

Does Ron Johnson not know any history of the Senate and the many great Republicans and Democrats who have helped shape the national security decisions of the nation -- often knocking back or kicking along the White House?

Precisely because Americans are easily distracted -- because, as study after study shows, they are clueless about their rights -- the American governmental scheme is sliding ever closer toward authoritarianism.

The intriguing debate continues on President Obama's use of signing statements to protest provisions of statutes he is signing into law.

Effective congressional oversight is critical for maintaining the separation of powers established under our Constitution and serves not only the interests of Congress, but also those of the executive branch and the American public.

"Judicial activism" (or, alternatively, "legislating from the bench") is defined -- no matter what your political beliefs -- as "judges not ruling the...

The false national consensus that national security should trump constitutional protections for liberty and privacy exemplifies such collusion today.

There have been some proposed appointments in the national security area, or at least floated appointments, that have essentially been torpedoed because the online community said, "No."

If the President issues a pardon, no later President can undo it. After George H. W. Bush pardoned the Iran-Contra defendants, Presidents Clinton could not say: "Hold on! I'm taking those pardons back!"

My last two posts focused on whether a newly inaugurated President Obama can move energetically to displace Bush-era policy without embracing a radica...

With supporters clamoring for the new president to wipe away Bush-era policies with a stroke of a pen, how can the new president wield his own pen without embracing the Bush assault on constitutionalism?

I'm not worried about whether checks and balances will disappear if Republicans don't have more than 40 seats in the Senate. True checks and balances are more fundamental than party affiliation.

The end of the George W. Bush Administration will mark the end of a 40-year period during which, for thirty of those years, the White House and at lea...

The executive is assigned the tools to respond to danger -- which also makes it the branch that poses the greatest risk to our own liberties and the branch in greatest need of oversight.