European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 2, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes Anthony Lewis Independent prosecutor decision makes sense the Viool auf Luclous Cllon in goner Allulia in Caa i. I a Nafea kn/4 str Tea it i with reason the constitutional Power of the president has been decisively turned Back. That is the larger meaning of the supreme court s decision wednesday in the Independent counsel Case. The court upheld against All challenges to the Law providing for special prosecutors to investigate wrong doing in the executive Branch. It rejected claims that under the Constitution the president must control investigations of his own subordinates suspected crimes and must have absolute Power to remove prosecutors at will. The particulars of what the court upheld must seem unsurprising. After painful experience of abuses in watergate and after Congress chose not to let the executive investigate itself. Instead judicially appointed counsel with a fair degree of Independence would do the Job. It was a commonsensical response to an urgent problem of governance. But a strident Public Campaign pushed the idea that special prosecutors infringe on the president s constitutional Power. The Reagan administration sup ported it. And it won an extraordinary Victory in the . Court of appeals for the District of Columbia. That is Why the supreme court s categorical rejection of the constitutional argument is so important. No decision in recent terms of the court has had deeper implications for the american system of government. The Radical right in this country had seized on the Independent counsel Issue As a Way to Advance presidential Power. Day after Day the Wall Street journal and the country. Congress brazenly violated the Constitution in creating them the journal said. The vision behind that argument was of a presidency supreme and essentially unchallengeable. It was As if those who framed the Constitution at Philadelphia in 1787 had created a president on the Model of King George Iii. The court of appeals made that royalist vision a threatening reality by the Way it approached the inde pendent counsel Issue. It engaged in astonishing Judi Cial activism a breathtaking willingness to disregard the Plain words of the Constitution. The Constitution happens to have an exceptionally explicit provision allowing Congress whenever it deems that proper to Vest the appointment of inferior Federal officers in the courts of  the supreme court held squarely in 1880 that that language gave Congress Broad discretion to have judges make appointments. But the court of appeals majority said it would not follow the Plain meaning of the constitutional provision because it conflicted with the need for a unitary  if courts could appoint prosecutors it said Why the next thing they would be app9int ing agriculture or defense officials. Imaginary horrible paraded through the opinion. Chief Justice William Rehnquist writing for a 7-1 majority disposed of All that judicial invention with dignified dispatch. The Constitution meant what it said he wrote and so did the court in 1880. Judges Congress and con Gress had acted Here with reason. It was highly significant that the opinion was by the chief Justice a conservative and a Man who certainly respects executive prerogative. It was one More sign there were others this term that he is moving to speak with a centrist voice for the court especially when there Are institutional concerns. Not Only did Rehnquist calmly reject the arguments against Independent counsels. Along the Way he inti mated that administrative agencies Independent of presidential control Are constitutional in Dis agreement with a View much argued by attorney Gen eral Edwin Meese and others. The Reagan administration s solicitor general Charles Fried had argued in the supreme court that the Only constitutional Way for Congress to ensure investigation of suspected criminal executive officials was to threaten the president with impeachment. The unreality of that argument the Absurdity some would say is even plainer now. The two judges in the court of appeals majority Laurence Silberman and Stephen Williams were both Reagan appointees. Silberman s opinion will remain As a High water Mark of conservative judicial activism. Rehnquist s opinion was also in striking contrast with the views of another person who might have been sitting on the supreme court Robert Bork. Years ago Bork called the special prosecutor Law unconstitutional. Rehnquist s opinion shows us How far that View was from the mainstream of constitutional judgment. C new York times James Reston 988 election May be vote on Public Nof presidency you were about to sep me one i was just lookin6 of Ohe to Send to the this year s College graduates were freshmen in High school when Ronald Reagan became the 4qth president,.and they will be in their Middle 30s, or there about at the turn of the Century. To get from Here to there they must rely mainly on their experience with the great communicator and his literary Circle but despite this Handicap they May be a Lucky Bunch. Unemployment taxes inflation and ideology Are Down. Wages and astrology Are up. Marriage is coming Back in style and the government is getting into the baby sitting business. Also the country has had its fling with the handsome troubadour from Hollywood and seems ready to Settle Down with some son so far. It s impossible to make a Clear judgment on their speeches most of them written by somebody else. Accordingly i have a frivolous Sugges Tion. What this country needs is a truth Detector which the computer Industry should be Able to produce. Essentially this would be a decontamination machine that could minimize political pollution and raise the level of the Campaign debate. It would be voice activated so that you could take it to a political Hall or put it in front of your television and whenever it heard some outrageous whopper from the candidate it would Flash error or even Giggle. In cases of extreme deception it could be made to Emit an insure steadier Type. Even the cold War seems less gent hum throughout the Hall thus serv scary so the Outlook is not too bad. Ing As a mechanical heckler. There Are some troublesome details a obviously the candidates knowing budget deficit of More than $ 150 billion they were under mechanical surveillance a year a Trade deficit uncertainty on would hesitate to Promise that they Wall Street and anxiety on main Street would Cut taxes raise defense appropriate Middle East and Central american tons and balance the budget lest the a tangles. But the graduates can t do much Chines erupted in derisive laughter about All that. There Are two difficulties with this a the one thing they can do something Chine temporarily named uni quack Iii. It about their first decision will be to help is still in the development stage and it is elect a president for the 90s, and Here opposed vigorously by de Meese the so they May tolerate one or two ideas. Called attorney general who argues that lies this election will not be a referendum Are protected under the free speech Amend on the Reagan administration which is ment to the Constitution now irrelevant to the future but a refer Bush says he was out of the Loop Wendum on the american people. Will the when Meese passed judgment on the in graduates vote or like most of their prevention but that he has always supported decess ors just sit around complaining the first amendment and sees no reason that the party s Over to interfere with free speech now. Dukakis have a suggestion. The main question says uni quack i would t bother him is not George Bush or Michael s. Duka since he has t been saying anything and is but which of them can put together a does t intend to change his strategy team of talented men and women who Jackson says the main beneficiary of theban hold the respect of the Congress and thing would be ism and anyway poor help unite and govern the country. It Folk could t afford it. And the president cannot be done by a Man and his cronies says this is just one More trick by the and a teleprompter. Media to Embarrass honest  is a threshold problem How a All Are talking As if the election is a voter even with a new University degree judgment on the past rather than a bet incan make a decision by listening to the the future but the class of 88 May Dis remarks made by vice president Bush agree. After All As uni quack Iii says the gov. Dukakis and the Rev. Jesse Jack future belongs to the Young