Bush Retreats on Use of Executive Power

Allowing Court's Role in Surveillance Is Latest Step Back
By Peter BakerWashington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 18, 2007; Page A04
President Bush's decision to submit his warrantless-surveillance program to the jurisdiction of a special intelligence court represents the latest step back from the expansive interpretation of executive power he has asserted since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Under pressure from Congress and the courts, Bush in the past six months has closed secret overseas CIA prisons, transferred previously unidentified detainees to regular military custody, negotiated congressional approval for tribunals to try foreign terrorism suspects and accepted at least some regulation of how harshly such prisoners could be interrogated.
Bush has hardly surrendered his effort to broadly define the commander in chief's authority to wage war in the modern era. Just last weekend, he and Vice President Cheney told Congress that it has no business trying to stop the president from sending 21,500 more troops to Iraq. But in other ways, Bush has engaged in a series of strategic fallbacks intended to preserve what authority he can while fending off escalating political and constitutional challenges.
Bush's decision seems likely to undercut Democratic opposition as leading figures such as Leahy welcomed the move. It may also be a calculated gamble by the administration to head off deeper inquiry into its counterterrorism efforts through congressional hearings and lawsuits. Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales is scheduled to make his first appearance today before the Democratic-led Judiciary Committee and the administration will face oral arguments Jan. 31 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit in a case challenging the legality of the NSA program.
But even if that case is dismissed, as some lawyers anticipate, others seeking damages for past actions could go forward in San Francisco. And some congressional Democrats vowed to continue pursuing the administration's actions over the past five years. "While I welcome the decision to stop conducting surveillance without judicial approval," said Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.), "the president now needs to respond fully to legitimate congressional questions about the complete history of this now-terminated illegal program."
Sounds like people are beginning to smarten up about Bush's seemingly endless authority over all. The reigns are being pulled in whether voluntarily or involuntarily remains to be seen. We hear rumblings and that's a start.

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