I Am the Law

PBS' Frontline last night, Cheney's law, was a powerful program, weaving together the secrecy and executive privilege that have become the hallmark of the Administration and detailing the Vice President's decades-long mission to expand the scope of presidential authority based upon his limitless interpretation of wartime powers as commander-in-chief. Although it does not have any new revelations, the storyline provides a terrifying reminder of the extent of Cheney's power grab and evisceration of the Constitution. With the assistance of his chief of staff David Addington, former Office of Legal Counsel stalwart John Yoo and current Office of Legal Council nominee Steven Bradbury, Cheney has used unprecedented claims of presidential authority to detain American citizens, authorize torture and spy on American citizens.

As described by Frontline:

For three decades Vice President Dick Cheney conducted a secretive, behind-closed-doors campaign to give the president virtually unlimited wartime power. Finally, in the aftermath of 9/11, the Justice Department and the White House made a number of controversial legal decisions. Orchestrated by Cheney and his lawyer David Addington, the department interpreted executive power in an expansive and extraordinary way, granting President George W. Bush the power to detain, interrogate, torture, wiretap and spy -- without congressional approval or judicial review.

Now, as the White House appears ready to ignore subpoenas in the investigations over wiretapping and U.S. attorney firings, FRONTLINE examines the battle over the power of the presidency and Cheney's way of looking at the Constitution.

"The vice president believes that Congress has very few powers to actually constrain the president and the executive branch," former Justice Department attorney Marty Lederman tells FRONTLINE. "He believes the president should have the final word -- indeed the only word -- on all matters within the executive branch."

After Sept. 11, Cheney and Addington were determined to implement their vision -- in secret. The vice president and his counsel found an ally in John Yoo, a lawyer at the Justice Department's extraordinarily powerful Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). In concert with Addington, Yoo wrote memoranda authorizing the president to act with unparalleled authority.

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As the White House and Congress continue to face off over executive privilege, the terrorist surveillance program, and the firing of U.S. attorneys, FRONTLINE tells the story of what's formed the views of the man behind what some view as the most ambitious project to reshape the power of the president in American history.

As Brian Tamanaha of Balkinization said:

As the program shows, the Bush Administration's primary opponents were conservatives who occupied key positions in the Administration (A.G. Ashcroft, Acting A.G. Comey, O.L.C. head Goldsmith, FBI Director Mueller--not a weak liberal amongst them). This was not a political dispute, but a dispute over respect for the rule of law. On one side of the dispute were the Bush inner circle and its legal enablers, who saw law as no more than an irritating hindrance, to be avoided or manipulated as necessary; on the other side of the dispute were those in the Justice Department who took seriously a commitment to the rule of law, although they largely agreed with the goals of the Bush Administration.

If you missed it, you can watch it ONLINE.

Tags: Commentary, Civil Liberties, Law, Frontline, Cheney