March 3, 2009

As bad as we thought

But perhaps not as bad as it could have been. As some of you may know, the Justice department just released some old OLC memos from the John Yoo days, and one at the very end of the Bush admin that tries to cancel the worst of it.

Turns out that his legal people told Bush that he could use the military on targets inside the US, and that he would not have to worry about the 4th amendment or Posse Comitatus. Further, he could limit speech and press and not worry about the First amendment.

It could have been worse, clearly, in that Bush could have tried to act off these memos, and as far as we know, besides declaring Padilla an enemy combatant, he did not. But it shows just how little respect these people had for the Constitution, and just how dangerous they really were.

No comments: