Murphy criticizes Bush's war plan

The American government, in its conduct during the War on Terror, has largely abandoned the values set forth in the U.S. Constitution, politics professor emeritus Walter Murphy said in a lecture in Dodds Auditorium yesterday.

"The Constitution was made in an effort to set our values and set a means to achieve those values," Murphy, an expert in Constitutional theory, said. But recent Bush administration policies — such as illicit wiretapping — show disregard for some of these values.

The lecture, titled "The Constitution, Dead or Alive?" was the first event in a series sponsored by the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, the Pace Center and the Program in Law and Public Affairs.

Murphy elaborated on the Constitution as a skeleton that formulates the ways in which the three branches of government interact. Bush, he said, disregarded this balance of powers in the War on Terror, taking authority into his own hands.

"The president can't do everything on his own," Murphy said. "At least two of these powers have to be working together at all times. Bush sometimes says, 'I have the authority to do whatever, so I will determine whatever I want.' "

"There is a procedure provided for explicitly in the Constitution's text," Murphy added. "However, Bush didn't go by this procedure."

As society has evolved since the Constitution's signing 219 years ago, Murphy said, the most positive changes have been those that reinforce the the document.

The Constitution, he explained, makes it possible for everyone to share in the authority of the nation.

"The Constitution tries to form a political culture," Murphy added. "As we interpret the Constitution, we interpret a culture."

The lecture was held in accordance with a 2004 federal law which requires educational institutions that receive federal funds to hold programs about the Constitution on or around Sept. 17, the anniversary of the document's signing.