Sensible views from John Birch Society

2006-08-30

Richard Moore

Here's a good example of why we need to get beyond 'us' and 'them' and realize 
that everyone does have contributions to make, even if we have our 
disagreements. We are all in this together.

rkm

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Original source URL:
http://www.jbs.org/node/740

Federal Judge Strikes Down Illegal Surveillance, Condemns Bush's Assault on 
Checks and Balances

By jbseditor at 2006-08-18 14:52

ARTICLE EXCERPT:

U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit ruled that the NSA's 
warrantless eavesdropping program is utterly unconstitutional, and ordered the 
Bush administration to desist immediately.

COMMENTARY:

For Judge Taylor, "the public interest is clear, in this matter. It is the 
upholding of our Constitution." The Bush administration, naturally, is unwilling
to let the matter rest, promising to appeal the ruling to the 6th U.S. Circuit 
Court of Appeals in Cincinnati. "We're going to do everything we can do in the 
courts to allow this program to continue," insisted Attorney General Alberto 
Gonzales.

Rarely, if ever, in the last five years has a federal judge rendered such a 
lucid critique of the Bush administration's doctrine of presidential power uber 
alles.

"We must first note that the Office of the Chief Executive has itself been 
created, with its powers, by the Constitution," wrote Judge Taylor. "There are 
no hereditary Kings in America and no power not created by the Constitution. So 
all Œinherent power¹ must derive from that Constitution."

Ten years ago, those words came easily from the lips and fingers of Republican 
activists criticizing the Clinton administration's abuses of power. Eight years 
ago, when Clinton embarked on his "stroke of a pen, law of the land -- kind of 
cool" phase, in which he tried to rule by executive order, Republicans regularly
denounced Bubba as an aspiring dictator. Today, however, those same Republicans 
are likely to demand that Judge Taylor be tried for sedition.

In her 43-page ruling, the judge laid bare the essentially dictatorial ruling 
ideology of the administration:

"The Government appears to argue here that Š. because the President is 
designated Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, he has been granted the 
inherent power to violate not only the laws of the Congress but the First and 
Fourth Amendments of the Constitution, itself."

This is to say that from the administration's perspective, the president is, in 
effect, our living constitution. This is, in a specific and unmistakable sense, 
fascist.

For a flavor of the predictable reaction from the administration and its media 
allies, we turn to Debbie Schlussel, Ann Coulter 's talk radio understudy. Of 
Judge Taylor, whom she describes as "a shameless liberal," Schlussel rants: "She
seems to hate America and fairness almost as much as the Plaintiffs do. She 
certainly hates a fair, impartial Judiciary."

During the Reconstruction Era, when the conquered South was under military 
dictatorship, Vice President Andrew Johnson declared: "Whenever you hear a man 
prating about the Constitution, spot him as a traitor." That's a more elegant 
way of expressing essentially the same totalitarian sentiments to which 
Schlussel gave voice: Real "patriots" support unlimited power in the Executive 
Branch, not the Constitution, in that view -- which reads a lot better in the 
original German.

Follow this link to the complete article, "Judge nixes warrantless 
surveillance":

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060817/ap_on_go_pr_wh/warrantless_surveillance

JBS News Feed, by William Norman Grigg, Senior Editor, The New American

Copyright © 2006 The John Birch Society
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