Judge strikes Bush's power to name terror groups

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A federal judge struck down President George W. Bush's authority to designate groups as terrorists, saying his post-Sept. 11 executive order was unconstitutionally vague, according to a ruling released Tuesday. The Humanitarian Law Project had challenged Bush's order, which blocked all the assets of groups or individuals he named as "specially designated global terrorists" after the 2001 terrorist attacks. "This law gave the president unfettered authority to create blacklists," David Cole, a lawyer for the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Constitutional Rights that represented the group, said Tuesday. "It was reminiscent of the McCarthy era."