The People Behind the Scenes in Constitutional Law

Newsweek has a story about the bureaucratic machinations in creation of legal justification for expansive presidential power, and the bureaucratic fallout. One key player is Department of Justice Lawye David Addington:

Addington and a small band of like-minded lawyers set about providing that cover—a legal argument that the power of the president in time of war was virtually untrammeled. One of Addington's first jobs had been to draft a presidential order establishing military commissions to try unlawful combatants—terrorists caught on the global battlefield. The normal "interagency process"—getting agreement from lawyers at Defense, State, the intelligence agencies and so forth—proved glacial, as usual. So Addington, working with fellow conservative Deputy White House Counsel Timothy Flanigan, came up with a solution: cut virtually everyone else out. Addington is a purist, not a cynic; he does not believe he is in any way ignoring or twisting the law. It is also important to note that Addington was not sailing off on some personal crusade; he had the full backing of the president and vice president, who shared his views. But, steeped in bureaucratic experience and clear in his purpose, Addington was a ferocious infighter for his cause.

Also, The New York Times Sunday Edition has an article on the movers and shalers who have been pushing for a conservative takeover of the federal courts for a quarter century.

A movement that in 1982 sought only a haven from what its members considered the prevailing liberalism of the law schools and the federal courts has become a major force in the law. And with Judge Alito's confirmation, conservatives hope they may have at last begun to shift the balance of the Supreme Court in their direction on matters like abortion rights, school prayer, the death penalty and the limits on federal power.

Its worth considering, while we talk of the Rule of Law, that people and ideas matter too.