December 20, 2005

Bunk?

Martin Garbus compares Bush's legal defence with Nixon's:
In its filed brief the Justice Department claimed there were 1,562 bombing incidents in the United States from January 1, 1971 to July 1, 1971, including the bombing of the Capitol building, and that the "seriousness and magnitude, (of these) threats and acts of sabotage against the government exist in sufficient number to justify [these] powers." Robert Mardian, who was later to become a Watergate defendant, argued before the Court on behalf of the government that there was, in effect, an ongoing war within the United States that justified invoking the president's powers as Commander-in-Chief, a power which overrode the privacy rights of American citizens as provided for in the Fourth Amendment to the constitution of the United States.

A unanimous Supreme Court (the vote was 8-0, with Justice Rehnquist recusing himself because he was in the Justice Department legal counsel's office when the domestic spying program was formulated), with Justice Powell writing the opinion, in United States v. U.S. District Court, unambiguously rejected any such notion, articulating a clear-cut admonition to those who would diminish the import of the Fourth Amendment by suggesting that domestic spying at the whim of the president would be permitted under any circumstances.

1 comment:

Jaraparilla said...

It makes you wonder, doesn't it, why they even bother pushing so hard for unpopular laws, when they believe they can do whatever they want anyway.

Why not just declare a dictatorship and have done with it?

The answer, of coures, is the people would not allow it (would they???).

And that is the other big difference between today and Nixon's times: the people of the USA (even Conservatives) once held real values dear, and morality was more than just spin.

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