CASE OF INTEREST: House Democrats and others filed a federal court action in mid-February seeking to block the U.S. invasion of Iraq without authority from Congress.
The action was based on the constructional argument that only Congress can declare war; so far it hasn't; ipso facto, President Bush therefore can't take it upon himself to do it.
The matter was quickly denied by a lower court judge, but now Roll Call magazine and Scoop NZ are reporting a judge in Boston's 1st District U.S. Court of Appeal has agreed to hear an expedited appeal of that lower court ruling, sometime this week apparently.
Oddly, information about this important constitutional appeal in the media is thinner on the ground that might be assumed, considering how many words are being churned out to talk about the grand military adventure.. Besides the insider trade mag Roll Call, and the estimable Scoop NZ, little can readily be found.
The Scoop NZ piece provides links to three additional March 5 articles on the case from the Boston Globe, The Nation magazine and New York's Newsday. The Globe piece is merely a squib advancing the hearing, but the stories in The Nation and Newsday are well worth reading.
Google also produces a Feb. 14 article from the Seattle Times roundup column "Iraq Notebook" on the case filing and the support it got from a Washington congressman.
The universal search engine also produces a mention on TheCivicMind, a lawyer's civic action web help site. Alas, clicking on TCM's link to the backup information about the issue diverts the curious to articles on gun control.
Beyond that there seems to have been little readily accessible coverage of the appeal. Nonetheless, it remains an interesting case, and one to follow for as long as it has legs.
The action was based on the constructional argument that only Congress can declare war; so far it hasn't; ipso facto, President Bush therefore can't take it upon himself to do it.
The matter was quickly denied by a lower court judge, but now Roll Call magazine and Scoop NZ are reporting a judge in Boston's 1st District U.S. Court of Appeal has agreed to hear an expedited appeal of that lower court ruling, sometime this week apparently.
Oddly, information about this important constitutional appeal in the media is thinner on the ground that might be assumed, considering how many words are being churned out to talk about the grand military adventure.. Besides the insider trade mag Roll Call, and the estimable Scoop NZ, little can readily be found.
The Scoop NZ piece provides links to three additional March 5 articles on the case from the Boston Globe, The Nation magazine and New York's Newsday. The Globe piece is merely a squib advancing the hearing, but the stories in The Nation and Newsday are well worth reading.
Google also produces a Feb. 14 article from the Seattle Times roundup column "Iraq Notebook" on the case filing and the support it got from a Washington congressman.
The universal search engine also produces a mention on TheCivicMind, a lawyer's civic action web help site. Alas, clicking on TCM's link to the backup information about the issue diverts the curious to articles on gun control.
Beyond that there seems to have been little readily accessible coverage of the appeal. Nonetheless, it remains an interesting case, and one to follow for as long as it has legs.
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