So if Bush has all the "inherent authority" He claims to have, why does He even bother to have His lackeys show up in court? Prawfsblawg asked the same question, using fancier words:

If the President thinks, with Justice Thomas, that courts should stay out of the war on terror almost entirely, he should simply stop sending his lawyers to show up in court. We could then argue about the extent of inherent executive power, departmentalism, and so on. But that does not appear to be the President's theory. Indeed, it is not clear that there is any theory here at all. To be sure, it is possible that the administration will eventually reveal that there is method to its madness, but it increasingly looks as though the top of the administration sees the laws of the United States as if they were political hurdles to dodge, not something that the President is Constitutionally obligated to "take care . . . be faithfully executed."

Maybe we should stop talking about "Inherent Authority" and start talking about "Inherent Weaselity", which, in the vulgate, translates to "STFU, I can do whatever I want...."