In the rapidly approaching-legendary EFF vs. AT&T suit currently underway, the Justice Department has filed a brief claiming that they are above judicial review (and I quote):
"The court-even if it were to find unlawfulness upon in camera, ex parte review-could not then proceed to adjudicate the very question of awarding damages because to do so would confirm Plaintiffs' allegations."Or, as the EFF interprets the government's statement:
Essentially the Government is saying that, even if the Judiciary found the wholesale surveillance program was illegal after reviewing secret evidence in chambers, the Court nevertheless would be powerless to proceed, because the Executive has asserted that the Program, which has been widely reported in every major news outlet, is nevertheless still such a secret that the Judiciary (a co-equal branch under the Constitution) cannot acknowledge its existence by ruling against it. In short, the Government asserts that AT&T and the Executive can break the laws crafted by Congress, and there is nothing the Judiciary can do about it.If you'll recall, the Executive Branch has already made the Legislative irrelevant by creating federal agencies which can essentially make laws through regulation. The judicial is, of course, the next logical target.
Louis-Quatorze would have been proud! L'Etat, c'est moi!
- The Duke
4 comments:
Well whoever dressed ol Georgie up there knows fuck all about royalty since they used the painting of a Dutch burgher. The Dutch, for fucks sake, are some of the first and finest true republicans (after the Veniceans and Florentines or course) who once told several kings and emperors to go stuff there inbred Spanish beans up the nearest Dominican inquisitor (which they promptly did after drooling in their paella and banning a few scientific treatises).
- Up the Republic!
Actually, I think the hack work here is to the point. It's an apt reflection of a presidency which tries to pass itself off as what it is not, no?
I saw a bumper sticker today that said "Don't Vote for Bush and fight the war on error."
I saw a bumper sticker that said 'Vat Zal Ve Doo Vit de Dub-a-Yu' (Hail Burghermeister-Meisterburgher!')
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