While Mukasey doesn’t think there’s an inherent presidential right to torture — which he said is explicitly prohibited by the Constitution — that’s not to say he doesn’t take a broad interpretation of the president’s Article II authority. Reiterating an answer he gave yesterday, he told Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Russ Feingold (D-WI) that the president, for example, can authorize surveillance outside the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=179580