Never Ending War is Never Ending Power :: Patriot Act, The Bush Administration

The executive branch and president Bush had expanded their authority and power beyond what the framers could have envisioned. In doing so the checks and balances that had existed no longer function as designed and has created a loop of power and control in the executive branch under the theory of the unitary executive. Many of the powers that the executive branch wield come from Congress giving the Bush administration extraordinary powers following 9/11 with the Patriot Act. The Patriot Act that takes away the protection of habeas corpus, due process, privacy, reversal of innocent until proven guilty (p. 272, 274). It also grants the use of sneak and peak searches allowing for looking first and getting a warrant later which violates the 1st and 4th amendment (p. 271). National security letters requiring providing information for records and then not allowing that person to tell anyone but a lawyer (p. 271). All of these powers were given under the idea of â€Å"war powers†, typically war time is a limited amount of time that accept more extreme security measures, but with the prospect raised by the Bush administration of a new era of never ending conflict means these powers might not end. Another tipping of the scales towards the executive branch and president is the use of signing statements. The signing statements allow legislation passed by congress to be applied how the executive branch sees fit which directly contradicts the legislative role is creating laws ("Aba: Blue-ribbon task," 2006). In the passage of the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 the administration tried to disallow federal district courts from hearing challenges by Guantanamo detainees (p. 156). While seemingly allowing for the banning of mistreatment, it also prevented filing by detainees against the government for acts of mistreatment, making it unenforceable (p. 157). The allegations of torture against terrorist suspects violates not only the Geneva Convention but also human rights. Torture is not an effect method to gain information it only works to get those tortured to do admit to anything to make the pain stop (Gibney, 2007) . Some powers the administration took for themselves including NSA wiretaps which are not always used against terrorists (p. 112, Farren & Gibb, 2007) . The Bush administration bypassed the FISA court which could be considered weak oversight enacted by congress and operates in secret. The FISA court was specifically setup for the purposes of warrants in exactly the types of cases that were bypassed.