Presidential Prerogative
Walter Berns of the American Enterprise Institute has written an Opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal entitled "Interrogations and Presidential Prerogative" (Saturday, May 23, 2009, see here) and subtitled "The Founders created an executive with substantial discretionary powers." The piece is well worth the reading. I quote from it here. The italics are in the original article, but the bold face is mine:
But Locke admitted that not everything can be done by law. Or, as he said, there are many things "which the law can by no means provide for." The law cannot "foresee" events, for example, nor can it act with dispatch or with the appropriate subtlety required when dealing with foreign powers. Nor, as we know very well indeed, can a legislative body preserve secrecy.