Why Alberto Gonzales Needs to Read Aquinas

According to Aquinas, “[t]he sovereign is said to be exempt from the law; since, properly speaking, no man is coerced by himself, and law has no coercive power save from the authority of the sovereign. Thus then is the sovereign said to be exempt from the law, because none is competent to pass sentence upon him, if he acts against the law.”  Building on this observation, Brian Tamanaha explains why the Bush Administration's "systematic ideological . . . screening of applicants for positions in the Justice Department poses such a serious threat to the rule of law."