POL SCI 4150 EXAM 2 LESSON 7

Bush administration policy regarding the detention of enemy combatants was altered by several Supreme Court decisions. Explain two of the cases.

1. Hamdi v. Rumsfeld (2004): Yaser Hamdi was captured in Afghanistan fighting against US troops. He had dual citizenship in the United States and Saudi Arabia. The Supreme Court found that the administration was denying Hamdi habeas corpus (the government must prove it has reason to hold individual in custody). In the case, the court ruled that even noncitizens have a right to habeas corpus to challenge their sentences and this lead to the formation of the Combatant Status Review Tribunal. v 2. Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2006): Resulted in the passing of the Military Commissions Act (2006) which restricted more extreme actions by the tribunals but still let the president deny prisoners habeas corpus. Salim Hamdan was a driver for Bin Laden and held at Guantanamo Bay. Hamdan was given hearing before the Combatant Status Review Tribunal, which ruled that his detention was legal. The court decided against the administration and limited the ability of the president to use military tribunals, which were deemed unnecessary, unauthorized by Congress, and a violation of the Geneva Conventions. This resulted in the banning of tribunals unless the president received authorization by Congress or the tribunals were based on the same standards established by military law for courts marshall.

The textbook cites three things as being main causes of the Democrats' big losses in the 2010 midterm elections. What are these three things? (3 points)

1. Health care 2. Financial reform legislation 3. High unemployment

According to the memo issued by Obama shortly after becoming president, what steps would he be following in using signing statements? (2 points)

1. The executive branch will inform Congress of its concerns of pending legislation and its constitutionality. This communication was intended to reduce the number of times Obama would be faced with issuing a signing statement. 2. Obama would be cautious before assuming an enrolled bill is unconstitutional, assuming Congress had determined it constitutional. 3. Obama would be transparent and held accountable when identifying constitutional concerns about a statutory. 4. Obama will announce signing statements in a way that avoids a constitutional problem "only if that construction is a legitimate one."

stem cell research.

A controversial issue addressed by Bush early in his presidency was federally funded embryonic stem cell research. After a public demonstration of serious consideration about the issue, Bush gave a nationally televised address explaining the executive order he was issuing regarding federal funding for stem cell research. The Bush policy allowed federal funding to be used for research with existing embryonic stem cell lines but forbade federal funds from being used for any research involving new lines. The policy attempted to draw a middle ground, and, as is true with most such attempts, it angered people on both sides of the issue.

Ashcroft v. al-Kidd

Abdullah al-Kidd, an American Muslim convert, alleges that he was arrested and held under the federal material witness law, at the order of John Ashcroft, because there was no other legitimate reason to arrest him. He was leaving the United States at the time to study Islam in Saudi Arabia and was detained for fifteen days under the justification that he might be a witness in an ongoing case against someone else. Al-Kidd's contention is that he was arrested simply because he was Muslim and planning to travel to a Muslim country. His civil lawsuit alleges a misuse of the material witness law and violation of his Fourth Amendment constitutional protection against arrest without probable cause. In taking the case, the Supreme Court agreed to review only whether Ashcroft, as well as other government officials, are entitled to immunity against such accusations.

Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act

Another legislative success was the addition of a prescription drug benefit to Medicare. Because this greatly expanded the cost of running Medicare, the drug benefit was definitely not fiscally conservative, but it was seen as a way to attract the votes of older Americans. The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act passed in 2003 and took effect on January 1, 2006.

How do the experiences of Barbara Bush and Hillary Clinton as First Lady symbolize the struggle many women in American society experience?

Barbara Bush made it clear that her role in life was to be a supportive wife to her husband, and that was fine with many people. Advocates of women's rights, however, were dissatisfied with her choice. Hillary Clinton faced exactly the opposite dilemma as Barbara Bush faced. She was criticized for not using her husband's name and was accused of putting her career ahead of her family. Barbara Bush was seen by some as being too traditional, whereas Hillary Clinton was viewed by some as being too radical. For these First Ladies who served during changing times, certain segments of the population were impossible to please. The fact that these two choices could both be controversial to different segments of the population says much about the difficult transition women in our society have been undergoing.

What was the name of George W. Bush's philosophy about the appropriate role of government in people's lives? This philosophy is similar to that of which other president? (1 point)

Bush believed in compassionate conservatism, meaning Bush believed in conservative values but still advocated for the government being active in "helping people to help themselves." This was similar to Clinton's "New Covenant" and "third way" ideologies.

compassionate conservatism

Bush campaigned on a plan he called compassionate conservatism, which advocated conservative values but also argued that the government could, and should, be active in helping people to help themselves.

Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001.

Bush campaigned on the idea that the budget surpluses the government had enjoyed since 1998 belonged to the people and should be returned to them, and he proposed tax cut legislation to facilitate that campaign promise after he took office. In 2001, Congress passed a $1.3 trillion tax cut,

Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003,

Bush promoted as a supply-side economics way to jumpstart the economy, which had been in a mild recession.

How did Clinton manage to win such a convincing reelection victory in 1996 after the loss of the Democratic majority in Congress in 1994?

Clinton used a strategy his campaign called triangulation (a geometry term that means finding the location of a third point based on the known location of two other points). Clinton explained to voters that he was offering a "third way" that promoted policies in the center of the ideological spectrum. Clinton revived his New Covenant themes from the 1992 campaign, moved to the political center, and co-opted Republican issues such as welfare reform, crime, and balancing the budget by offering plans that were less conservative than the Republicans' plans but more conservative (far more in some cases) than liberal Democrats' plans.

Describe Dolley Madison's behavior as First Lady. What made Dolley Madison one of the country's most famous and well-loved First Ladies? How did she differ from Abigail Adams? (2 points)

Dolley Madison was described as "a hostess extraordinaire who was able to bring people together and soothe tempers," according to the section in the commentary titled "Dolley Madison." She served as first lady for two presidents, as she assumed the role of White House hostess for Thomas Jefferson and First Lady for her own husband, James Madison. Dolley understood the need for opposing political views and encouraged her husband to consider the opposition. Under Dolley, women became more prominent in politics and she worked to create social networks for political wives in Washington. Both Dolley and Abigail Adams were crucial to their husbands' presidencies, but they were different. Abigail Adams was more of a direct adviser to her husband.

Just as Franklin Roosevelt made significant changes to the presidency, Eleanor Roosevelt made significant changes to the public's understanding of what a First Lady might do. What did she do?

Eleanor Roosevelt broke many old restrictions as First Lady on what "proper" feminine behavior mandated First Ladies could or could not do. She was a businesswoman and an adviser to her husband's political career. She was a policy advocate, a close adviser to her husband, and also the first presidential spouse to hold an official position when she served in the Office of Civilian Defense. She established a new model for First Lady, even though many of the First Ladies who followed her, such as Mamie Eisenhower, Pat Nixon, Barbara Bush, and Laura Bush, chose to follow the more traditional model.

During the Bush administration, old issues regarding the treatment of prisoners of war arose. How did the Supreme Court respond to the Bush administration's policies?

In Hamdi v. Rumsfeld (2004), the court found that the administration was acting illegally in denying Yaser Hamdi habeas corpus. The court further asserted that even noncitizen enemy combatants had the right to habeas corpus hearings to challenge their detention. This prompted the creation of the Combatant Status Review Tribunal. The court also found that if someone was given a proper hearing and declared to be an enemy combatant, the government then had the right to hold him or her for as long as hostilities continued. In Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2006), the court limited the president's ability to use military tribunals. They found that the military tribunals had not been authorized by Congress, that there was no military necessity for them, and that they violated the Geneva Conventions. The court effectively banned the use of the tribunals unless (a) the president got Congress to authorize their use or (b) if the tribunals used the same standards established for courts martial by military law. In Boumedeien v. Bush, the court determined that the administration could not deny enemy combatants their constitutional rights by confining them outside the United States.

Bouemediene et al. v. Bush

Supreme Court decided, by a five to four vote, that detainees held at the military facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had a right to habeas corpus hearings. Enemy combatants had been denied access to federal courts to request habeas corpus hearings by the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which said that federal courts had no jurisdiction to hear such cases because the military facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was not US territory. The Supreme Court found that although the base was on Cuban soil, it was completely under US control, so the detainees could not be denied constitutional rights such as seeking habeas corpus hearings.

Ashcroft v. Iqbal,

Iqbal claimed he had been arrested following the 9/11 terrorism attacks solely because of his ethnicity. Iqbal was proved to be living in the United States with falsified documents, but his case against former Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller, alleging that they had ordered the prejudicial arrest of Muslims, continued through the system. The US Second Circuit Court of Appeals found that he had, in fact, provided enough proof of orders from Justice Department superiors urging prejudicial treatment of people of Muslim descent for his case to continue. Ashcroft appealed the case to the Supreme Court, which found that Iqbal had not, in fact, demonstrated sufficient proof that Ashcroft or Mueller had ordered the prejudicial treatment that led to his initial arrest.

No Child Left Behind Act of 2001

It created a system of testing in public schools designed to move students to a high level of proficiency in reading, math, and other subjects. It was noteworthy that Bush was able to get this proposal through Congress, because he encountered resistance from both liberals and conservatives. Conservatives tend to think education should be left to state and local governments and that the federal government should not get involved. No Child Left Behind represented a major expansion of federal government involvement in K-12 education.

Why is it unwise to make assessments of presidents' performance while they are still in office? Why should we be cautious about what the press writes about presidential performance?

It takes time to see what kind of enduring impact presidential policies have. It also takes time for an accurate historical record to be generated—this comes from books and interviews given by former administration officials, the release of presidential records through the National Archives and Records Administration, and the gathering of information from many other sources. Much of our understanding of any president while that president is still in office comes from the news media. By the very nature of what they do, the news media report their best understanding of what is happening as it happens. As events unfold, early reports are often revealed to be inaccurate. We also can't rely too much on the news media for our understanding about politics because, for the most part, journalists are experts on reporting the news, not analyzing the events they cover. There is no reason to put any special faith in reporters' take on complicated events. They simply do not have the necessary expertise to put those events in context.

Detainee Treatment Act of 2005.

It was actually an amendment to a defense spending bill that was designed to limit the use of "cruel, inhumane, and degrading" interrogation techniques. The president signed the act into law but also issued a signing statement asserting the president's right to interpret the law as he saw fit under his authority as commander in chief. As a result, interrogation techniques continued to be controversial throughout Bush's presidency.

What does it mean to say that Jimmy Carter treated his wife, Rosalynn, as his political partner? (2 points)

Jimmy Carter treated Rosalyn as his political partner because she was his "hardest campaigner." She traveled the country and gave speeches on behalf of her husband and was a trendsetter for future first ladies to take a larger role in their husbands' campaigns and presidencies. When her husband was elected, she personally laid out a list of issues she herself wanted to address.

Bill Clinton and George Bush expressed similar ideas about domestic policy. What were those ideas?

Like Clinton, Bush's initial take on domestic policy was to emphasize policies that appealed to the moderate center of the American public. While Clinton called his ideas a "New Covenant" and a "third way," Bush campaigned on a plan he called "compassionate conservatism," which advocated conservative values but also argued that the government could, and should, be active in helping people to help themselves.

Describe the role played by First Ladies during the nineteenth century.

Martha Washington was the first presidential spouse to stand in for her husband at an official function, and presidential spouses have done so ever since. Martha Washington also established the role of social hostess for presidential spouses that remains a part of their duties today. As historian Betty Boyd Caroli observed, the ceremonial and social roles of presidential spouses were expanded and institutionalized when the president's office and residence were combined into one building. First Ladies became the official hostesses for the nation when the White House became the official presidential residence.

Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (2002),

Political considerations prompted the president to sign two pieces of legislation that grew out of the Enron scandal. (The giant energy corporation collapsed after illegally falsifying fiscal reports for years. ) The first was the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (2002), which changed many rules of campaign finance. T he final pressure to pass this bill, sponsored by Republican Senator John McCain, came from the fact that Enron had given millions of dollars in political contributions to politicians of both parties. Bush opposed the legislation, but pressure related to Enron gave him little choice but to sign it.

Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2006)

Salim Hamdan was a former driver for Osama bin Laden who was captured in Afghanistan and transferred to Guantanamo Bay. On the basis of the Hamdi ruling, Hamdan was given a hearing before the Combatant Status Review Tribunal, which declared him an enemy combatant and that his detention was legal. Hamdan sued, arguing that the tribunal was illegal because it violated rights protected by both the Geneva Conventions and the US Uniform Code of Military Justice. The court decided largely against the administration and limited the president's ability to use military tribunals. It found that the military tribunals had not been authorized by Congress, that there was no military necessity for them, and that they violated the Geneva Conventions. The court effectively banned the use of the tribunals unless (a) the president got Congress to authorize their use, or (b) if the tribunals used the same standards established for courts martial by military law. Bush responded to the case by asking for congressional authorization

Department of Homeland Security

Security-related issues were central to the BUSH campaign, including a push for congressional authorization for a military invasion of Iraq and the creation of a new cabinet-level agency, the Department of Homeland Security

Sarbanes-Oxley Act (2002),

Strengthened the regulatory powers of the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC). It also created a new commission, the Public Accounting and Oversight Board, to enforce accounting laws and practices to prevent something like Enron from happening again. Although Bush publicly supported this legislation, it seems unlikely to have been a legislative priority if not for the Enron scandal.

Describe the Bush Doctrine. What role did it play in the nation's entry into war with Iraq?

The Bush Doctrine asserts that the United States has the right to treat nations that support terrorists as enemies. It also asserts the right of the United States to take preemptive action against nations it feels might pose a terrorist threat. It was this doctrine that formed the basis of the administration's case for war to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq.

Bush Doctrine

The Bush Doctrine asserts that the United States has the right to treat nations that support terrorists as enemies. It also asserts the right of the United States to take preemptive action against nations it feels might pose a terrorist threat. It was this doctrine that formed the basis of the administration's case for war to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq.

According to the textbook, while George W. Bush and Karl Rove deserve some of the credit for Republican gains during Bush's presidency, there are several other factors that contributed to improved Republican performance. Briefly explain these factors. (2 points)

improved Republican performance can also be attributed to the formation of a national organization in which the Republican National Committee funded (as opposed to state and local organizations). This was the main sponsor for party building activities and developed a grassroots voter mobilization plan for Bush's reelection in 2004. Page 456 in the textbook also states that by the end of Clinton's presidency, Republicans controlled both houses and held governor positions in nine out of the ten largest states (except California).

, the impeachment of Clinton led to a series of court decisions that weakened the authority of the presidency. Name and explain the Supreme Court's decision in one of these cases. (2 points)

one of the Supreme Court cases that weakened the authority of the presidency was Clinton v. Jones. The Supreme Court decided to reject Clinton's claim of immunity against a sexual harassment lawsuit. This ruling established that "even sitting presidents are subject to civil suits."

USA PATRIOT Act

passed by Congress by a nearly unanimous vote in the Senate and an overwhelming majority in the House. The name of the act is an acronym for Provide Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism. The law was sweeping and complex. It granted many new powers to the executive branch in the name of investigating and preventing terrorism, both in the United States and abroad. Despite its nearly unanimous passage, the act was almost immediately controversial and spawned an unusual coalition of liberal and conservative interest groups that opposed it, such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the John Birch Society. The Supreme Court has yet to make any significant rulings on the PATRIOT Act, which was renewed in 2006, although other federal courts have found parts of it to be unconstitutional.

Military Commissions Act (2006

restricted some of the more extreme actions permissible in the tribunals but still allowed the president to deny prisoners habeas corpus.

Describe Eleanor Roosevelt's activities as First Lady. (2 points)

she was one of the most accomplished of all First Ladies and set a standard for future First Ladies. Eleanor served as her husband's adviser, manager, and frequent stand-in. She began a new school and furniture company with another female entrepreneur, was an author, a radio personality, and worked as First Lady to promote women's rights. She influenced the New Deal legislation and advocated for programs like the National Youth Administration. Eleanor also traveled the world and represented the U.S. at the United Nations fighting for human rights.

In Lesson 6, we mentioned President George H.W. Bush's use of presidential signing statements. President George W. Bush also issued many presidential signing statements. One controversial signing statement was issued when the president signed the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005. What is this act? What did Bush say in his signing statement? (2 points)

the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 was an "amendment to a defense spending bill that was designed to limit the use of "cruel, inhumane, and degrading" interrogation techniques." Bush's signing statement on the law stated that the president had the right to interpret the law as he saw appropriate under his authority for each situation.

Hamdi v. Rumsfeld (2004)

the court found that the administration was acting illegally in denying Yaser Hamdi habeas corpus. Hamdi's case was complicated. Although he was captured in Afghanistan fighting against US troops, he also had dual US-Saudi citizenship. In the decision, the court ruled Hamdi had a right to a habeas corpus hearing and further asserted that even noncitizen enemy combatants had the right to habeas corpus hearings to challenge their detention. A habeas corpus requires the government to prove it has a valid reason for holding someone in custody. This prompted the creation of the Combatant Status Review Tribunal. The court also found that if someone was given a proper hearing and declared to be an enemy combatant, the government then had the right to hold him or her for as long as hostilities continued.

Briefly describe the origins of the term "First Lady." (1 point)

the term was coined by President Zachary Taylor in 1849, when he spoke at the funeral of former First Lady Dolley Madison, according to historian Barbara Feinberg.