POTUS trumps Pope. Totally.
Wow...I mean, I've always found the notion of papal infallibility cool and all (well, ok, Coke-through-the-nose funny, really...but cool sounds better), but it's got NOTHIN' on the President. Secrecy News links to the text of a recent Congressional floor statement where Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) described the contents of three Office of Legal Council opinions that he had been able to review. Among the gems:
- An Executive order cannot limit a President. There is no constitutional requirement for a President to issue a new Executive order whenever he wishes to depart from the terms of a previous Executive order. Rather than violate an Executive order, the President has instead modified or waived it.
- The President, exercising his constitutional authority under article II, can determine whether an action is a lawful exercise of the President's authority under article II.
Awesome! It's like superpowers!!
PS: Yes, all my Catholic compadres, I am aware of (at least generally) the nuances of papal infallibility. I was fascinated with it at one point in time, and spent some time researching the subject. Fun stuff.posted by Ken Kennedy at Mar 17th 2008 9:42 p.m.
