The Unitary Executive

Today's Froomkin

In this week's New Yorker (not available online), Jane Mayer profiles David S. Addington, Cheney's chief of staff and longtime legal adviser, who has "played a central role in shaping the Administration's legal strategy for the war on terror.

"Known as the New Paradigm, this strategy rests on a reading of the Constitution that few legal scholars share -- namely, that the President, as Commander-in-Chief, has the authority to disregard virtually all previously known legal boundaries, if national security demands it. Under this framework, statutes prohibiting torture, secret detention, and warrantless surveillance have been set aside."

She writes: "Conventional wisdom holds that September 11th changed everything, including the thinking of Cheney and Addington. . . . But a close look at the nearly twenty-year collaboration . . . suggests that in fact their ideology has not changed much. It seems clear that Addington was able to promote vast executive powers after September 11th in part because he and Cheney had been laying the political groundwork for years."

Mayer notes that former secretary of state Colin Powell recently told friends that Addington "doesn't care about the Constitution."

In a short Q and A on the New Yorker Web site, Mayer explains: "It seemed important to me to hold the creator of these policies accountable, so that the public could understand better who is behind them and how he thinks."

And what would Mayer ask Addington, if the notoriously secretive official let her? "I'd like to ask him whether, in his view, there is anything that the President cannot legally do in the service of national security."

I wonder if there will be anything left of the Bill of Rights by the time Bushco leaves office.