Hightower Lowdown

It's bad enough that the BushCheney regime keeps usurping power to build an imperial presidency, but it's far worse that our Congress critters have been weaker than Canadian hot sauce at exercising their own constitutional power.

Take "The Fence," the 40-foot-high wall being built along 700 miles of our border with Mexico. This partition is monstrous, but even more monstrous is the unprecedented dictatorial authority that Congress handed to the Homeland Security czar Michael Chertoff to erect it. In 2005, our legislators gave him carte blanche to--get this--overrule any of our laws that he thinks might interfere with building this border barrier. Environmental law, labor law, property law--you name it--all can be voided on the unilateral say-so of Chertoff. Even Cheney, who claims to be his own branch of government, can't do that.

To make Chertoff's power absolute, Congress also took the astonishing step of banning federal courts from reviewing his decisions. And the czar has not been modest about asserting his superpower, having already suspended more than 30 of our laws. Two environmental groups have taken a challenge to this madness to the Supreme Court, which has never upheld such a wholesale delegation of power. Yes, Congress itself surrendered its power, but as Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in a similar case, "Abdication of responsibility is not part of the constitutional design."

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