COURIC: By Invoking Executive Privilege, Bush Acts Above the Law

Speaking in 2007 amidst the U.S. Attorney “scandal,” Katie Couric says, “This week we’ve heard the term ‘executive privilege’ a lot. The president used it to prevent his former counsel Harriet Miers from testifying about her role firing U.S. prosecutors. But what does executive privilege mean? Scholar Norm Ornstein says it’s part of a struggle as old as old as George Washington. His administration weighed how much information to give Congress during an investigation of a botched military campaign. It’s not mentioned in the Constitution but during Watergate the Supreme Court endorsed it as an implied presidential power. And it’s not absolute. And in Ornstein’s view, it applies only to conversations involving the president, the executive at the heart of executive privilege. Others have a broader view and say it protects the president’s staff. But it begs the question, unless it’s a question of national security, should people in positions of power, including the president, really be above the law?”