A Judicious Review

Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter is a case study in how to succeed in national politics without toeing the party line. When he deviates from the Republican plan, he demonstrates that he thinks critically, for himself. I’ve had my share of disagreements with his stances, but I respect his example when it comes to bucking partisan politics.

While some in the GOP are advocating prosecution of institutions of our free press (The New York Times tops the list, unsurprisingly), Specter is sticking with an older story—the Bush administration’s warrantless wire tapping project. He indicated his plans to pursue judicial review for the Bush wiretapping program yesterday, probably through the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) Court, who should have reviewed the program when the evesdropping started.

It’s interesting to note that Thomas Jefferson (and, obviously, James Madison) vehemently opposed the landmark Supreme Court rulling in Marbury v. Madison that instituted the now-entrenched doctrine of judicial review. Jefferson feared that it would vest too much power in a single branch of government, the judiciary. To the extent that we have witnessed a good deal of “legislating from the bench” ever since, Jefferson’s concerns were well-justified and ought to be remembered. At the same time, judicial review repeatedly has turned out to enable a truer system of checks and balances. We can only hope that in this case of warrantless wiretapping, the perhaps excessive power of the judiciary will reign in this excessively autocratic act of a too-powerful executive.