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in
acob
G. H oknbekuek
President B ush’s reaction to the
Iraqi parliam ent’s rejection o f the
newly enacted UN resolution autho
rizing renew ed inspections in Iraq
provides a fascinating insight into
the direction in which our own na
tion is headed. A ccording to the New
York Tim es, President Bush said,
“The Iraqi Parliam ent is nothing but
a rubber stam p for Saddam Hussein.
This g u y ’s a d ic ta
tor, so w e’ll have to
wait and see what
he says.”
But
w a it
a
m inute! H a sn ’t it
alw ays been P resi
dent B ush’s posi
tion that he — and
he alone — decides
w hether the U nited
States goes to w ar
against Iraq? Isn ’t
it he who said that
while he w ould like to have the sup
port o f C ongress, he would make the
ultim ate decision on w hether to go to
w ar regardless o f w hat C ongress de
cided?
If p o sse ssin g the o m n ip o te n t
pow er to decide w hether his nation
goes to w ar is part o f w hat m akes
Saddam H ussein a dictator, what
does that say about President Bush,
who claim s the exact same pow er as
the Iraqi president? Is there really
much difference in principle whether
a dictatorial pow er is exercised by a
self-appointed ruler or an elected
H ©uses o f Dictators
one? Isn’t the real point that the ru l
ers o f the U nited States and Iraq ex
ercise the same om nipotent and dic
tatorial pow er to send their respec
tive nations into w ar?
It’s im portant to note that our
Founders rejected the Bush-Saddam
view that the pow er to declare w ar
should be vested in the executive.
Instead, w ith our C onstitution the
Founders placed the pow er to declare
o f am endm ents to our C onstitution
by 3/4 o f the states. In fact, there
have been 27 am endm ents to our
C onstitution since its inception.
C om pare that process o f co n stitu
tional change to the one in Pakistan,
which is ruled by another dictator, an
army general who ousted the dem o
cratically elected president and ap
pointed him self ruler. He claim s the
pow er to unilaterally amend the Paki
s ta n i c o n s titu tio n
w henever he w ants in
order to provide him
self w ith m ore power.
President Bush, for his
part, do esn ’t go that
far but he does effec
tively hold that he has
the pow er to ignore
c o n s titu tio n a l r e
straints that he feels
are either out-of-date
or that have been regu
larly violated, such as
the d ecla ra tio n -o f-w a r provision,
thereby enabling him to circum vent
the am endm ent process provided in
the C onstitution itself.
President Bush should exercise
caution before hastily criticizing the
om nipotent pow ers o f foreign dic ta
tors. A fter all, people ju st m ight start
asking som e uncom fortable ques
tions about the pow ers that h e’s ex
ercising and the m ethod by w hich he
is usurping them.
< If possessing the omnipotent power
to decide whether his nation goes to
war is part of what makes Saddam
Hussein a dictator, what does that say
about President Bush, who claims the
exact same power.
1
w ar in the legislative branch o f the
governm ent — the C ongress. Thus
the suprem e law o f the land — the law
that controls the actions o f public
officials — prohibits the president
from w aging w ar w ithout an express
declaration o f w ar from C ongress.
And it also prohibits the C ongress
from delegating its pow er to declare
w ar to the president.
The Founders also provided a pro
cess by w hich the C onstitution could
Jacob Hornberger is founder and
be changed w henever the people con
cluded that a change was needed. president o f The Future o f Freedom
That process involves the approval Foundation in Fairfax, Va.
Conservative Judge Hostile to Civil Rights
T he H ighest S tandard of
J ournalism and
P ublishing
' y
J
The Portland Observer
2001-2002
The U.S. Senate last week approved
the controversial nomination of the
right wing extremist Judge Dennis W.
Shedd to the U.S. Court of Appeals for
the Fourth Circuit, the second highest
court in the nation. The N A A CP
strongly opposed Judge Shedd’s con
firmation.
The vote by the full Senate came
after Senate Judiciary Committee, us
ing a highly unusual voting maneuver
last week, permitted the nomination to
advance by voice vote. The Senate
passed the nomination in a 55-to-44
vote, despite Judge Shedd’s record of
organizations had strongly op
posed the nomination o f Judge
Shedd because of our concerns
that his abiding hostility to civil
rights as reflected in his judicial
record would further radicalize an
already extreme, right wing.
Fourth Circuit Court o f Appeals.
Judge Shedd’s confirmation means
that he may serve on the Fourtk
Circuit, which has the greatest num
ber of African Americans living
within its boundaries than any other
U.S. circuit court in the country, for
life.
system atically precluding A frican
Americans, women and the disabled
from arguing their employment discrimi
nation cases before a jury.
During Judge Shedd’s 11 years on
the federal district court in South Caro
lina, he dismissed in whole or in part
every employment discrimination case,
with the exception of one case where
the employer called an African Ameri
can women a “N-.” Yet even in that case,
Judge Shedd said it was an “extremely
close question” whether or not to grant
dismissal.
The NAACP and other civil rights
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