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Presidency: Direct Election Without Constitutional Amendment

by Akhil Reed Amar and Vikram David Amar

Imagine this: Americans could pick the President by direct national election, in 2004 and beyond, without formally amending our Constitution. A small number of key states-eleven, to be precise-would suffice to put a direct election system into effect. Alternatively, an even smaller number of key persons-four, to be exact-could approximate the same result, with a little help from their friends. How Key States Could Implement Direct National ElectionBegin with

Getting to the Bottom of the CIA/NSA/CYA Mess

by Norman Markowitz

Although there have been surprisingly few recriminations directed against the CIA and other American intelligence agencies in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, Congress is now moving to create a bipartisan commission to investigate intelligence gathering policies and the ways intelligence is used by government. We should hope that the commission will, like the post-World War II commissions that investigated civil rights and the status of women in the United States, come forward with both

Military: What’s New About the New Military

by Mark Safranski

One of the noteworthy features of the Afghan campaign in the war on terrorism is not the widespread use of smart munitions, improved since their first appearance in the Gulf War, to minimize civilian casualties while targeting Al Qaeda. There was nothing new about that since the Soviets had anticipated these technological developments two decades earlier. What was novel was the decision by the Bush administration to opt for a ground strategy dependent upon only a small cadre of special fo

Civil Liberties: What If Jefferson Davis Had Been Tried by a Military Court?

by Derek Alger

Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. Maybe so. But extraordinary measures can also easily, almost imperceptibly, lead to common mistakes and assumptions, which was the case with the scope of the military tribunal gathering evidence to try those associated with John Wilkes Booth in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. In the immediate aftermath of the assassination at Ford's Theater on April 14, 1865, it was not surprising that many, especially in top gover

Politics: Enron and Mr. Bush

by Edward Winslow

Almost 30 years have elapsed since the"third rate burglary" of the Democratic National Committee headquarters on June 17, 1972 that opened the dam of the Watergate scandal. The press and members of Congress largely ignored the crime, as then President Richard M. Nixon kept the nation's focus on the war in Vietnam. Similarly, with the press and Congress distracted by President George W. Bush's war in Afghanistan, they are ignoring another scandal. No third rate burglar

Column: No, My Predictions for Bush Can’t Possibly Turn Out True, Can They?

by P.M. Carpenter

Historians aren't supposed to be in the prediction-making business. It's a professional bugaboo routinely frowned on, and in some circles an overheard transgression is to be reported to the proper authorities immediately. But seeing how it's not an indictable offense, except in the eyes of some tenure-review boards, I'll make one anyway. A warning, though; it's guara

Presidency: FOIA, SCHMOYA

by Ruth Rosen

The President didn't ask the networks for television time. The attorney general didn't hold a press conference. The media didn't report any dramatic change in governmental policy. As a result, most Americans had no idea that one of their most precious freedoms disappeared on Oct. 12.Yet it happened. In a memo that slipped beneath the political radar, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft vigorously urged federal agencies to resist most Freedom of Information Act requests made by Americ

So W. Hasn't Been Political the Past 4 Months?

by P.M. Carpenter

Now that George is wrapping up what Christ found a tad difficult--that is, ridding the world of evildoers--he has announced he’s once again turning his attention to politics. Nothing, of course, has been farther from W.’s mind in the past few months than the tawdriness of political jockeying. As the Washington Post recently reported,"Administratio

Presidency: An Executive Order Richard Nixon Would Love

by Stanley I. Kutler

The United States was attacked in a stunning suicidal assault on September 11, 2001. We have retaliated and apparently destroyed a regime that harbored terrorists, and the hunt goes on for other sponsors and perpetrators of terrorism. Eventually, they will be eliminated or neutralized, and the republic will stand. But what republic? We pledge allegiance to a flag and"to the republic for which it stands," but is it now a different republic? As calmer moments inevitably return, we will

Civil Liberties: Round ‘Em Up? No

by Roger Daniels

Stephen Schwartz, early in his muddled account of"What we did with Aliens in World War II," in last week's edition of HNN, notes that"few of those who expatiate on the topic nowadays know very much about it." The same applies - in spades -- to his fantasies about"Japanese government-controlled Shinto religious temples in America," or his conflation of the internment programs of the D

Column: Demonizing Daschle

by P.M. Carpenter

James Michael Curley--Boston’s “lovable-scoundrel” who served four terms as mayor, four terms as U.S. representative and one as the Commonwealth’s governor--once infuriated his opponents during the 1945 mayoral campaign by reading poetry on the air rather than responding to their increasingly shrill attacks. The gambit endeared him to the public and contributed to C

What Should Be Done with John Walker?

by By John Barnhill

The case of John Phillip Walker Lindh, the young American recently captured fighting for the Taliban, pushes to the fore the meaning of treason. While many of his fellow citizens are horrified, and rightly so, by his actions, we need to look at the Constitution for guidance. Past cases of U.S. citizens found on the wrong side of wars put Walker's situation in a clarifying light. According to the Constitution, treason is defined as taking up arms ag

Civil Liberties: Let The Military Try Them

by John Dean

This piece originally was published by findlaw.com.Civil libertarians, from both the right and left, have expressed continuing concern over the President's proposed use of military tribunals for bringing terrorists to justice. Even before knowing what procedures will be used, or who will be tried by these military panels, many have anticipated that worst case scenarios will be the likely norm.It is easy to complain. But hand wringing is not terrib

Presidency: 10 Arguments in Favor of Keeping the Electoral College -- Refuted!

by Akhil Reed Amar and Vikram David Amar

This piece originally appeared in findlaw.com.A year ago, Americans watched the loser of the national popular vote win the electoral vote (with a little help from his friends). In a continental republic of equal citizens, why shouldn't every voter's ballot count equally in a single nationwide vote for president? If one person, one vote is the best way to pick a state governor, why isn't it also the best way to pick a national president?In our

Column: The Trail Leads Back to Bush I and Iraq

by P.M. Carpenter

The political scene is getting very, very weird when we have right-wing Dan Burton denouncing the Bush administration as a “monarchy” and left-wing Barney Frank praising the eccentric Indianan as a man of “genuine intellectual integrity.” Indeed, the scene is too weird to even venture a reasonable prediction on the legal or political outcome of the growing wa

Column: Hermann Göring, Civil Libertarian

by P.M. Carpenter

On the 84th day of the Nuremberg trials, Hermann Göring took the stand in a defiant face-off with Supreme Court Justice and U.S. Chief Prosecutor Robert Jackson. Since Göring's arrest by enemy forces in May, 1945 he had taken the cure for his lethargy-inducing addiction to dihydro-codeine and now appeared, according to coconspirator Albert Speer, to be"in better for

Civil Liberties: The Martial Plan

by David Greenberg

With U.S. forces seemingly closing in on Osama Bin Laden, the Bush administration may soon have to decide whether to execute its plan to try suspected terrorists—including American residents—before military tribunals. Just as the Bushies have invoked Abraham Lincoln's suspensions of the privilege of habeas corpus to justify their summary detentions, so they have hearkened back to the use of military tribunals in the Civil War to justify their new proposal. The big difference betw

Presidency: Laura Bush, Post 9/11

by Rick Shenkman

While the country has been focused on George W.'s recent transformation -- he came into office sounding like Warren Harding and now usually comes across like Harry Truman -- wife Laura has undergone her own post- 9/11 metamorphosis. Pre- 9/11 she was Barbara Bush without the loveable smile and the gray grandmotherly hair. Like Barbara she promoted literacy and hinted in interviews that she did not share her husband's views on abortion. On the Today Show she pointedly told Katie Couric

Why We Should Junk the Electoral College

by Akhil Reed Amar and Vikram David Amar

The unintended (and intended) consequences of the establishment of the Electoral College.

George W. Bush, Islamic Scholar

by Daniel Pipes

The U.S. government wants you to know that the Taliban, who yet rule part of Afghanistan, are bad Muslims. Instead, it should be showing that they are totalitarian thugs. There's a big difference.When the Taliban destroyed the ancient Buddhist statues in their country early this year, Washington repeatedly decried this demolition as un-Islamic. It contradicts"one of Islam's basic tenets - tolerance for other religions," intoned the State Department spokesman. It is"an act of intolerance,