Legal Grounds

From Radioblogger, a transcript of Hugh Hewitt's interview with U of Chicago Law professor Cass Sunstein - constitutional law expert and self-described liberal and non-Bush tool:

If the Congress authorizes the president to use force, a pretty natural incident of that is to engage in surveillance. So if there's on the battlefield some communication between Taliban and al Qaeda, the president can monitor that. If al Qaeda calls the United States, the president can probably monitor that, too, as part of waging against al Qaeda.

HH: Very good. Part two of your analysis...If...whether or not the AUMF does, does the Constitution give the president inherent authority to do what he did?

CS: That's less clear, but there's a very strong argument the president does have that authority. All the lower courts that have investigated the issue have so said. So as part of the president's power as executive, there's a strong argument that he can monitor conversations from overseas, especially if they're al Qaeda communications in the aftermath of 9/11.

As noted in previous posts, there is some complexity to this issue - and Sunstein notes it. Read the whole thing.

Posted by Mitch at December 24, 2005 08:08 AM | TrackBack