Showing posts with label executive power. Show all posts
Showing posts with label executive power. Show all posts

Thursday, January 20, 2022

"Because the Court of Appeals concluded that President Trump’s claims [of executive privilege] would have failed even if he were the incumbent, his status as a former President necessarily made no difference to the court’s decision."

Said the Supreme Court, disposing of Trump v. Thompson with sublime efficiency. 

Justice Thomas would have granted what was an application for stay of mandate and injunction pending review.

Justice Kavanaugh wrote a statement that began:

The Court of Appeals suggested that a former President may not successfully invoke the Presidential communications privilege for communications that occurred during his Presidency, at least if the current President does not support the privilege claim. As this Court’s order today makes clear, those portions of the Court of Appeals’ opinion were dicta and should not be considered binding precedent going forward....
It's clear... but he chooses to write about it anyway:
Without sufficient assurances of continuing confidentiality, Presidents and their advisers would be chilled from engaging in the full and frank deliberations upon which effective discharge of the President’s duties depends.

ADDED: Now that this decision has come out, I find myself very interested in finding out the specifics of what Trump said and did while the siege of the Capitol was under way. I could have accepted executive privilege for the reason Kavanaugh stated, but that isn't what's happening and I like the opportunity to find out this important information — after all we've been through, including the second impeachment. I hope it's a big letdown for Trump haters, but if it's not, it will be good to know.

Wednesday, March 11, 2020

"[T]he president was able to take quick action to limit the number of people coming in from China that had exposure to coronavirus, but the No Ban Act would make it more difficult..."

"... for the president to keep Americans safe by addressing needs as we see other countries like Iran — you're seeing a large, potential large outbreak in Iran — Iran is one of those countries that we currently have a travel ban on because they don't allow us to properly vet that terrorists aren't coming into our country.... The president ought to be able to keep potential terrorists from coming into our country, but now with this outbreak of coronavirus, the president also needs to have all the tools available to limit, people coming in from countries with a high propensity of coronavirus... You wouldn't want legislation that would make it more difficult.”

Said Steve Scalise, quoted in "GOP leaders call on Pelosi to pull travel ban bill over coronavirus" (The Hill).