• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
REINING IN THE IMPERIAL PRESIDENCY
 
Lessons and Recommendations Relating tothe Presidency of George W. Bush
 House Committee on the Judiciary Majority Staff Report toChairman John Conyers, Jr.
 
January 13, 2009
 
1
Reining in the Imperial Presidency:Lessons and Recommendations Relating tothe Presidency of George W. Bush
Table of Contents
Foreword
....................................................................9
Executive Summary
..........................................................16
Preface: Deconstructing the Imperial Presidency
.................................24The September 25, 2001, War Powers Memorandum...........................27Critique of John Yoo’s Flawed Theory of Presidential Supremacy.................32The Need for a Judiciary Committee Staff Report..............................40
Section 1 – Politicization of the Department of Justice
.............................41I.Politicization of the Prosecution Function..............................43A.Hiring and Firing of U.S. Attorneys and other Department Personnel..43B.Selective Prosecution........................................50II.Politicization of the Civil Rights Division..............................54A.Factual Background.........................................54B.Committee Actions.........................................56III.Findings........................................................63Politicization of the Prosecution Function........................63Politicization of the Civil Rights Division and Voting Rights Enforcement...................................................69
Section 2 – Assault on Individual Liberty:Detention, Enhanced Interrogation, Ghosting and Black Sites, ExtraordinaryRendition, Warrantless Domestic Surveillance, and National Security and ExigentLetters
...............................................................72I.Detention.......................................................74A.Factual Background.........................................74November 2001 Decision to Try Detainees, Including U.S. Citizens, inMilitary Commissions.................................75December 2001 Decision to Hold Detainees at Guantanamo.........78The Administration’s Public Defense of Its Guantanamo Policies.....78B.The Bush Administration’s Detention Policies in the Courts.........81The President’s Power to Detain an American Citizen Captured in
 
2Afghanistan Without Judicial Review (
 Hamdi
)..............81The President’s Power to Establish Military Commissions to DetermineValidity of Detention (
 Hamdan
).........................85The President’s Power to Order Detention of Persons Without Access toFederal Courts –
 Rasul
and
 Boumediene
...................87The President’s Power to Order the Military Detention of an AmericanCitizen Seized by Civilian Authorities in the United States(
Padilla
)............................................89The President’s Power to Order Military Detention of Lawfully AdmittedAlien Seized by Civilian Authorities in the United States (
al- Marri
).............................................103C. Committee Action.........................................107II. Interrogation....................................................110A. Factual Background........................................110December 2001toFebruary 2002 – Determinations That the Protections of the Geneva Conventions, Including Common Article III, Do NotApply to Guantanamo Detainees........................110The August 1, 2002 Torture Memorandum......................112August 1, 2002 – Waterboarding Approved for CIA Use...........114October 2002 to March 2003 – Development of Techniques for Use atGuantanamo........................................115John Yoo’s March 14, 2003, Torture Memorandum...............118Use of Harsh Interrogation at Guantanamo......................120Migration of Guantanamo Interrogation Techniques to Abu Ghraib...121Role of High-level Officials..................................122The Congress and the President Battle over Interrogation Techniques..................................................123Destruction of CIA Waterboarding Videotapes...................127B.Committee Action.........................................128Effectiveness of Enhanced Interrogation........................128Potential Criminal Liability for Destruction of Videotapes..........130OLC Opinions Concerning Enhanced Interrogation and Potential LegalLiability Thereto.....................................131III.Extraordinary Rendition, Ghosting and Black Sites.....................137A.Factual Background for Legal Memoranda......................137B.Committee Action.........................................142IV.Warrantless Surveillance .........................................146A.The Genesis of the Bush Administration’s Warrantless SurveillanceProgram.................................................146B.Internal Disagreements as to the Program’s Legality; Disclosure of theProgram by
The New York Times
in December 2005..............148C.Bush Administration’s Public Statements Concerning WarrantlessSurveillance..............................................155
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...