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The US Executive Branch claims to have the power to take aggressive and voluntary military action in the absence of a clear and present danger to the USA itself. It is relying in part upon a string of legal opinions stretching back decades which have been crafted and offered by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) to make this case. But the perplexing dimension of this situation is that the Executive Branch will not share these "secret" legal opinions with either the American public or even the US Congress itself. It holds them secret and refuses to disclose its justifications for claiming the right to use voluntary military force abroad independent of the US Congress and without getting Congressional approval/authorisation before taking such actions. Is this a tolerable situation or is Star-Chamber Justice and Secret Law becoming more normal in America? If so, is that a good or bad constitutional direction for America to go in?
https://theintercept.com/2018/04/14...t-legal-justification-even-congress-cant-see/
What was the point of fighting a revolution against absolute monarchy and imperial prerogative if you then create a de facto imperial presidency with unfettered power rooted in secret law in order to make war at the president's pleasure?
So the question for debate is, "Can the executive branch legitimately hide as secret its legal justifications for using voluntary military force abroad at the president's discretion and thus deny both the American people and their representatives and senators in Congress the ability to contest those legal justifications?"
Cheers.
Evilroddy.
https://theintercept.com/2018/04/14...t-legal-justification-even-congress-cant-see/
What was the point of fighting a revolution against absolute monarchy and imperial prerogative if you then create a de facto imperial presidency with unfettered power rooted in secret law in order to make war at the president's pleasure?
So the question for debate is, "Can the executive branch legitimately hide as secret its legal justifications for using voluntary military force abroad at the president's discretion and thus deny both the American people and their representatives and senators in Congress the ability to contest those legal justifications?"
Cheers.
Evilroddy.