Iraq and legality again Re: [extropy-chat] Professor BeingSuedOverAnti-Agi

Mike Lorrey mlorrey at yahoo.com
Tue Jun 28 17:12:55 UTC 2005



--- Brett Paatsch <bpaatsch at bigpond.net.au> wrote:

> Mike Lorrey wrote:
>  
> To impeach the President and let's say the Vice President as well,
> and perhaps the Secretary of Defence, why would you also need to
> impeach "most every elected official" ? 
> 
> I am sceptical of this particular claim of yours Mike. I wonder if
> you are just suggesting that most every elected official breaks their
> oath, in which case I would reply that that is really a separate
> matter when one is considering the elected position of the US
> President. 

The claim is valid because of the nature of the oath taking. Any
senator or congressman who has voted for any gun control law, for the
Patriot Act, the REAL ID Act (all 100 Senators), or any law claiming
authority under the commerce clause that does not strictly regulate the
practice of trade between the states (see US v Lopez for some good
writing on this) such as the Gun Free School Zones Act (which was
struck down in the above case for this reason), violates their oath of
office when they pass unconstitutional laws.

They will all state that it was their good faith belief that the bill
they were passing was constitutional. The oath of office states the
office holder will "protect and defend the Constitution of the United
States from all enemies, foreign and domestic." By passing
unconstitutional law, they themselves become domestic enemies of the
Constitution and should be removed from office. However, the courts
allow the 'good faith' defense in cases such as this.

Because of this, if we apply this to Bush and Cheney, if they testify
in court that they honestly felt they were upholding their oath of
office, and honestly believed that the intelligence was bad (based on
the fact that it has been so bad for so long) and that Saddam DID have
wmd (which is still, btw, unresolved given the shipments to Syria just
prior to the invasion and Saddams history of sending his weaponry to
other nations - he sent his fighter jets to Iran during the first Gulf
War) in spite of the claims of an intel agency with a very shoddy
record, then they walk.

To hold a new standard to Bush and Cheney would require that standard
be held to all members of congress. Not that I mind, I'd love to see
elected officials get booted from office every time a law they
sponsored or voted for was ruled unconstitutional. I've been advocating
such for quite a while. People on the opposite side of the argument in
this list, though, have previously opposed this idea, though it is
illustrative that they may now support the concept...

> An oath
> breaking major of a minor town is not as serious as an oathbreaking
> President with the power to appoint judges and send military forces
> into harms way. Yet the flip side is that an oathbreaking President
> perceived to be an oathbreaker that had gotten away with it would
> likely encourage others at lower levels of public trust to emulate
> the practice and likewise hope to escape be held to account by the 
> people.  

Sure, but that was a can of worms that was opened by Clinton, and every
Democrat in congress chose to cover his ass, so the damage is already
done, there is no public trust right now to defend or protect. Any
attempt by Democrats to impeach Bush would just be seen as
partisanship. Those in his own party most likely to support such an
attempt are regarded as RINOs - Republicans in name only, so they are
generally democrats in conservative states. Impeaching Bush would only
deepen the rancor and divisiveness in this nation.


Mike Lorrey
Vice-Chair, 2nd District, Libertarian Party of NH
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.
It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
                                      -William Pitt (1759-1806) 
Blog: http://intlib.blogspot.com


		
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