Signing Statement

[somerfrost]

Originally Posted by brianwspencer

Signing statements and this administration have been a major concern for quite some time now.

A president using signing statements is not unheard of in the past, but they were used for a variety of reasons. No president has ever come close to using the number of signing statements that President G.W. Bush has.

Every single one of them essentially puts the law into our nation's codified set, yet preserves the president's right to not follow them.

I've wondered often if there is any legal remedy for this, as whenever the president issues a signing statement he is issuing a statement that he is not bound by, and is above the law at any time of "emergency."

Guess whose sole discretion it is as to what kinds of times qualify as an "emergency?"


You got it.

While I usually pass on the Bush-bashing that constantly goes on here, this type of thing is of grave concern! It's been a slow but gradual erosion of many of our privacy rights over the years since 9-11, the fear-mongering has allowed the Feds to seize more and more power and in this day of high technology, there is little that lies outside their ability when it comes to spying on citizens...we survived McCarthy and the abuses of J Edgar Hoover but many folks suffered and this is a real concern. When you have folks willing to report someone to the FBI for verbalizing disagreement with Bush or promoting an alternative life style, it doesn't take much to start the proverbial ball rolling down the hill!