Things are seldom what they seem,
Skim milk masquerades as cream...
—Gilbert and Sullivan, "HMS Pinafore"
Last week found Republicans in Congress complaining loud and long that the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, along with the House Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees, all bipartisan and under the leadership of Rep. Adam Schiff, were violating the rules of the House of Representatives by interviewing witnesses about impeachment behind closed doors. They derided Schiff's hearings as a "secret impeachment."
President Donald Trump called the hearings a hoax. When some pointed out that the initial. . .
In nearly three years in office, President Donald Trump has spent federal dollars not authorized by Congress, separated families and incarcerated children at the Texas/Mexico border in defiance of a federal court order, pulled 1,000 American troops out of Syria ignoring a commitment to allies and facilitating war against civilians, and sent 2,000 troops to Saudi Arabia without a congressional declaration of war.
He has also criminally obstructed a Department of Justice investigation of himself but escaped prosecution because of the intercession of an attorney general more loyal to him than to the Constitution.
At the outset. . .
Last week, the White House legal counsel wrote to congressional leaders stating President Donald Trump's legal views of the impeachment investigation now being conducted by the House of Representatives. The essence of Pat Cipollone's letter argued that the impeachment investigation is illegitimate, unconstitutional and unfair.
The illegitimacy argument contended that since the House has yet to vote to authorize an investigation of the president, its committees lack subpoena power. The unconstitutional argument offered that since impeachment seeks to overturn a valid election, it is a thinly veiled coup and thus is in violation of the Constitution. . .
Readers of this column are familiar with the concept of the separation of powers, which James Madison crafted as integral to the Constitution. That concept mandates that Congress writes the laws, the president enforces them, the courts decide what they mean and interpret them, and the three branches of government don't step on each other's toes.
The separation of powers also recognizes that the Constitution reposes unique authority in each branch and, at times, in each house of Congress. For example, only the Senate can confirm judges and ambassadors and ratify treaties. Only the House can. . .
The House of Representatives has begun to gather evidence in an effort to determine if President Donald Trump has committed impeachable offenses. The Constitution defines an impeachable offense as "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors." The president need not have committed a crime in order to be impeached, but he needs to have engaged in behavior that threatens the constitutional stability of the United States or the rule of law as we have come to know it.
Has Trump committed any impeachable offenses?
A CIA agent formerly assigned to the White House — and presently referred. . .
Last week, media outlets reported the existence of a whistleblower complaint filed with the inspector general of the intelligence community against President Donald Trump. The IC encompasses all civilian and military employees and contractors who work for the federal government gathering domestic and foreign intelligence.
The inspector general — a position appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate — exists in all parts of the executive branch of the government, except for the White House, to examine and determine if officials are following the law.
A whistleblower refers to a person who works for the government and who. . .
A trial in Great Britain has just concluded with potentially dangerous implications for personal freedom here.
Great Britain is currently the most watched country in the Western world — watched, that is, by its own police forces. In London alone, the police have erected more than 420,000 surveillance cameras in public places. That amounts to 48 cameras per 1,000 residents. What do the cameras capture? Everything done and seen in public.
The cameras use facial recognition technology that can capture a grimace, a pimple, a freckle, even an eye blink as you walk the streets. Software then compares. . .
In 1791, when Congressman James Madison was drafting the first 10 amendments to the Constitution — which would become known as the Bill of Rights — he insisted that the most prominent amendment among them restrain the government from interfering with the freedom of speech. After various versions of the First Amendment had been drafted and debated, the committee that he chaired settled on the iconic language: "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech."
Madison insisted upon referring to speech as the freedom of speech, not for linguistic or stylistic reasons, but to reflect its. . .
Does the president of the United States have too much power?
That question has been asked lately with respect to President Donald Trump's use of federal funds to construct 175 miles of sporadic walls along a portion of the 2,000-mile common border between Texas and Mexico. After Congress expressly declined to give him that money, Trump signed into law — rather than vetoed — the legislation that denied him the funds he sought and then spent the money anyway.
It has also been asked with respect to his imposition of sales taxes — he calls them. . .
Late last week, President Donald Trump issued a tweet in which he purported to order American businesses to cease doing work with their employees and contract partners in China.
He claimed he was exercising presidential powers pursuant to what he contended was the national emergency surrounding the trading relationship between the United States and China.
Since he did not declare a national emergency, he did not notify Congress and give it the opportunity to ratify or reject his executive orders. In fact, he didn't even sign any executive orders on this.
He merely ordered American businesses in a. . .