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Senator Byrd - I have always held the utmost respect for you, and have donated to your campaign fund even though I am a Virginia. I feel you have America's best interests at heart at a time when many in power do not. Thank you.
But I must beg you to reconsider your vote on Sam Alito, sir. His belief is that presidential power is limitless, and Bush has made extensive use of the "signing statement" power that Alito crafted in the Reagan era. Even as Bush signed the anti torture bill, his signing statement claimed he could still ignore the law without penalty. Below is a snippet from a Washington Post article about this very issue.
Please sir, for the good of America - do not vote for Alito. Respectfully, (name)
"Alito Once Made Case For Presidential Power
By Christopher Lee Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, January 2, 2006; A11
As a young Justice Department lawyer, Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. tried to help tip the balance of power between Congress and the White House a little more in favor of the executive branch.
In the 1980s, the Reagan administration, like other White Houses before and after, chafed at the reality that Congress's reach on the meaning of laws extends beyond the words of statutes passed on Capitol Hill. Judges may turn to the trail of statements lawmakers left behind in the Congressional Record when trying to glean the intent behind a law. The White House left no comparable record.
In a Feb. 5, 1986, draft memo, Alito, then deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel, outlined a strategy for changing that. It laid out a case for having the president routinely issue statements about the meaning of statutes when he signs them into law.
Such "interpretive signing statements" would be a significant departure from run-of-the-mill bill signing pronouncements, which are "often little more than a press release," Alito wrote. The idea was to flag constitutional concerns and get courts to pay as much attention to the president's take on a law as to "legislative intent."
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