I've read some of the cases Hewitt references in this discussion, and some of his positions are totally irrational... JA raises the crux that this issue places conservatives in... Are you really a strict constructionalist when it means sacrificing your own power to make war?
HH: Okay, just for the benefit of the audience, the Truong Court, as did all other courts that have decided the issue, held that the president did have inherent authority to conduct warrantless surveillance to obtain foreign intelligence information. We take for granted that the president does have that authority, and asserting that is so, FISA could not encroach on the president's Constitutional authority. So I mean, you can argue that, but it's just simply wrong, Jonathan....
JA: ... Look, this is a basic question of whether one is a traditional, a limited government conservative who believes in James Madison, and what an originalist, what the founders wanted, or whether one's an authority conservative. Now I know you're an authority conservative. It's the difference between a Goldwater conservative and a Nixon conservative. And I know you're in the latter camp. But for you to deny that there's a kind of philosophical distinction here, it cuts very deep. I was at the Cato Institute in Washington on Monday, interviewing them. They are more upset about this than I am.
