Hugo Black Quotes

President George W. Bush had ignored a federal law and tapped the phones of Americans without probable cause and a warrant issued by a court. The President’s defenders argued that the President, as Commander in Chief, has the Constitutional responsibility to lead the military and protect the nation. Intelligence gathering is part of military activity. Therefore the intelligence gathering is a Constitutional duty and the Congress, under the separation of powers doctrine, may not interfere with the President’s Constitutional Duty to conduct intelligence. Under this doctrine, the President need not obey laws that he believes impinge on his management of the war effort and the defense of the nation. Most legal scholars believe that this argument is nonsense, but the George W. Bush administration has stated the doctrine and it was the subject of much litigation.

While Jefferson appreciated Jackson’s military prowess, that was about all.

See {592811} for Adams response.

ordered recinded by Lincoln

A veto power for the President would be absurd because

Powell was the Secretary of State and Addington kept advising the administration that as long as the President was acting in defense of the country in his capacity as Commander in Chief, he did not have to obey any existing laws that had been Constitutionally passed which in the opinion of the President restricted or limited the President or the executive branch. Addington was an attorney and Assistant to the Vice President, but he was given much responsibility for administration policy. Powell the Secretary of State of the Administration could not have disagreed more and although most politicians including Republicans disagreed with the Addington thesis, Powell was one of the few Republicans to criticize the Addington position.

Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

This is a very important historical quotation because it clearly stated the left wing view of regulation. Large Business had been so unethical and illegal at the time that the majority of Americans and Congress, together with a Republican President, thought that it would be good to “weld” the growth and development of large companies to the Government. The right wing saw this as extreme Communism. Over time, when corporate greed and excesses had been controlled by government and was not as prevalent, the inhibition on growth and development of welding corporations to Government was recognized and a period of deregulation followed with most Americans not wanting to allow large companies to be completely deregulated and also not wanting them welded to the government. The extent of regulation has been the political contest with the extreme left and extreme right still holding to their ideological positions and sometimes paralyzing the middle as in the Obama administration.

She was a nondescript minor functionary in a Tea Party Active Southern County, and her hatred of the Black president was hardly noteworthy. What makes this an important quotation is that it was frequently shown to foreigners who really did not understand the great degree of freedom of speech. Here a public official being paid by the government, not only calls for the removal of a sitting president, but also openly asked the army to rebel against their commander in chief. She was not punished, nor even arrested or tried. She was not even dismissed from her elected government job. That was up to the voters in the next election. There likely is no other country in the world where that can happen.

During his Ambassadorial confirmation hearings Helms lied about the role the CIA under his direction had played in the destabilization of Chile and the Allende administration. In 1977 he was convicted of perjury. He was not convicted for carrying out any presidential orders but for lying under oath to Congress. No President had ordered him to do that. The CIA had covertly aided in a coup usurping the popular, elected President Salvador Allende—today a national hero in Chile. We picked the wrong side in the political battle in Chile. We helped a military dictator overthrow a democratically elected president. See {622168}.

MacArthur had been the Commander of our Military Forces in Korea. He had a huge ego, and he wanted to cross the border and attack China since Chinese Troops were aiding the North Vietnamese. He had previously assured the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the President that the Chinese would not send troops into Korea, but he was then wrong. And when they had attacked, they had erased the territorial gains that MacArthur had previously gained. The Joint Chief’s of Staff, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State had decided upon a strategy which this time did not follow MacArthur’s strategic advice. The President approved the strategy, but MacArthur spoke and acted contrary. The President met with MacArthur and reiterated the strategy that the President approved. But MacArthur did not follow the orders of the Joint Chiefs. At the time, he and Eisenhower were America’s two most famous military leaders, and of the two MacArthur was senior and thought that he should be President. After he was fired, MacArthur addressed a Joint Session of Congress and gave his "Old Soldiers Never Die" speech which was his first active step towards the Presidency. It was a very sentimental speech with little content and nothing about why he had disobeyed orders. He was totally shocked when it was Eisenhower who was selected to run for President and not him.