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> We haven't had a president work to roll back his own power, this is just not true. For example, all under the Obama administration * the closure of Guantana
by postflopclarity 9mo ago
> We haven't had a president work to roll back his own power,
this is just not true. For example, all under the Obama administration
* the closure of Guantanamo Bay and other black sites, the prohibition of torture as an interrogation method including updates to Army Field Manual and mandatory access of Red Cross to any POW, all represented a significant reduction in executive power in how we treat detainees.
* following the Snowden leaks there were several actions taken to curtail executive power in applying surveillance programs to both US citizens and non-US persons. these also rolled back several components of the PATRIOT act (passed under his predecessor we all know and love, Dubya)
* the signing statements reform meant the executive no longer had an effective line-item veto
* the AG under Obama implemented a new DoJ policy limiting the use of "state secret" privilege during litigations.
- api 9mo agoI agree with those things but they were not rollbacks of executive power. That was Obama using executive power to reel in bad policy, not ceding the power entirely. Of course perhaps he couldn’t. Congress needs to do that, and the courts, and neither seem interested in doing their job. Lower courts sometimes step up but the Supreme Court seems to be on the side of a dictatorial executive for some time now. What does Congress even do these days? Seems like half crackpot debate club and half hospice care facility.
- nickff 9mo agoThe Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility is still open, and hosting detainees: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamo_Bay_detention_camp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamo_Bay_detention_camp Obama rejected signing statements on the campaign trail, but his actions in office were more nuanced: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signing_statement#Obama_administration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signing_statement#Obama_admini... Eric Holder, notable AG under the Obama administration had a very mixed record, and did not support limitations of his power, or oversight of his actions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Holder#Tenure_as_Attorney_General_of_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Holder#Tenure_as_Attorney...
- postflopclarity 9mo ago> The Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility is still open, and hosting detainees remind me, who reopened it?
- stackskipton 9mo agoIt never closed. Congress with support of many Democrats prevented its closure and Obama just kind of gave up. Trump obviously wants it open and Biden kind of just ignored it so it remains.