WHERE SEPARATION EXISTS BETWEEN TWO BRANCHES IT EXISTS WITH THE THIRD:

Bid to punish Bush aides may fail: The House and Senate have escalated efforts in the US attorneys case, but the White House may delay a resolution (Gail Russell Chaddock, 7/27/07, The Christian Science Monitor)

[E]ven if lawmakers approve these contempt citations, President Bush can tie up the matter in legal red tape until the end of his term. Moreover, both sides have a lot to lose if the issue is finally settled in court, rather than through political compromise.

"We're talking about a matter that is at the heart of executive power: the president's ability to receive confidential advice on an executive power that is indisputably his," says Douglas Kmiec, a professor of constitutional law at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., and former Reagan administration official. "But this constitutional principle has always existed in a quiet, untested tension with Congress's ability to investigate. If the law courts pronounce in a black-and-white fashion, they will advantage one side or another going into the future."

How would the Court enforce its decision either?

Posted by Orrin Judd at July 26, 2007 9:03 PM