President’s Signing Statement: Torture

Crooks and Liars just posted a story on Frontline’s “Cheney’s Law,” and I thought I should provide some extra context. First, the relevant Title of the bill that Bush signed into law on December 30, 2005

In text of H.R. 2863:

Title X: Matters Relating to Detainees – Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 – (Sec. 1002) Prohibits any person in the custody or effective control of DOD, or under detention in a DOD facility, from being subject to any treatment or technique of interrogation not authorized and listed in the U.S. Army Field Manual on Intelligence Interrogation. (1)

The President released a signing statement with the signing of this bill, effectively saying that even though he signed it, he may disregard it is he sees fit. He supports this by claiming it is a matter of executive power and by claiming Title X to be unconstitutional. The relevant section of the signing statement:

“The executive branch shall construe Title X…in a manner consistent with the constitutional authority of the President to supervise the unitary executive branch and as Commander in Chief and consistent with the constitutional limitations on the judicial power” (2)

Nowhere is it enumerated that the President may ignore laws that he deems unconstitutional, nor is there any precedent set to this end. The Judiciary only has this power because of Marbury v. Madison, not as a result of any enumeration of policy in the U.S. Constitution.

The purpose of this post was simply to add original source context to C&L’s post, not to make any specific point (though I did submit my 2 cents).

“Cheney’s Law” is a special story that examine’s Dick Cheney’s relationship with and view of Executive Branch powers. Here is the video clip that is relevant to the bill I was just talking about.