Bush Administration Memo Says Fourth Amendment Does not Apply to Military Operations Within U.S.
April 3rd, 2008Chilling.
Via: ACLU:
A newly disclosed secret memo authored by the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) in March 2003 that asserts President Bush has unlimited power to order brutal interrogations of detainees also reveals a radical interpretation of the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment protection from unreasonable search and seizure. The memo, declassified yesterday as the result of an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit, cites a still-secret DOJ memo from 2001 that found that the “Fourth Amendment had no application to domestic military operations.”
The October 2001 memo was almost certainly meant to provide a legal basis for the National Security Agency’s warrantless wiretapping program, which President Bush launched the same month the memo was issued. As a component of the Department of Defense, the NSA is a military agency.
“The recent disclosures underscore the Bush administration’s extraordinarily sweeping conception of executive power,” said Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU’s National Security Project. “The administration’s lawyers believe the president should be permitted to violate statutory law, to violate international treaties, and even to violate the Fourth Amendment inside the U.S. They believe that the president should be above the law.”
The Bush administration has never argued publicly that the Fourth Amendment does not apply to military operations within the nation’s borders. The memo released yesterday publicizes this argument for the first time.
Comments, Mr. Obama? Ms. Clinton? Mr. McCain? What was that? It sounded like you said… nothing.
Yes, and the candidates might also be asked about the Military Commisions Act, which effectively tossed out the right to habeas corpus.
At this point I don’t know what is the greater outrage – the unconstitutional actions of the Bush Administration, or that the American public doesn’t even seem to give a damn…
i’m beginning to think the time of representation is up.
there’s been talk of Direct Democracy, as in the popular vote replacing the electoral college.
why not, in this day and age, have Direct Governance?
let the people matter again.
while we still have an internet…
there’s been talk of a constitutional convention,
http://zuma.vip.warped.com/cotu.htm#convene
if that should occur, i wouldn’t be surprised should this notion arise.
on the other hand, that ‘ambush of hope’ gets me every time…
http://zuma.vip.warped.com/cotu.htm#strangeronfire
(where cryptogon is linked, a cryptogon article inspiring thought)