Text of a letter to Vice President Dick Cheney from US Sen. Arlen Specter, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, June 7, 2006 [complaining of Cheney's actions in brokering a deal with Committee member Orrin Hatch without Specter's knowledge that would put White House support behind Specter's bill concerning the NSA's domestic surveillance program in exchange for not issuing subpoenas to three phone companies accused of allegedly providing records to the NSA].

Excerpt:

I was surprised, to say the least, that you sought to influence, really determine, the action of the Committee without calling me first, or at least calling me at some point. This was especially perplexing since we both attended the Republican Senators caucus lunch yesterday…

It has been my hope that there could be an accommodation between Congress's Article I authority on oversight and the President's constitutional authority under Article II. There is no doubt that the NSA program violates the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act which sets forth the exclusive procedure for domestic wiretaps which requires the approval of the FISA court. It may be that the President has inherent authority under Article II to trump that statute but the President does not have a blank check and the determination on whether the President has such Article II power calls for a balancing test which requires knowing what the surveillance program constitutes.

If an accommodation cannot be reached with the Administration, the Judiciary Committee will consider confronting the issue with subpoenas and enforcement of that compulsory process if it appears that a majority vote will be forthcoming. The Committee would obviously have a much easier time making our case for enforcement of subpoenas against the telephone companies which do not have the plea of executive privilege.

Read the full text of the letter [PDF] along with Cheney's response [PDF].
Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.