If I wouldn’t get shot down, I’d fly a plane over the White House, steal a trick from the CIA and dump copies of the Constitution. The Administration doesn’t seem to have read it. If they had, there’s no way they could say the power granted to the President under Article II supersedes the requirement under the FISA law to acquire a court order when they use domestic wiretaps.
Other than stating that “[t]he President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States”, nothing in the Constitution declares that the President’s job is to protect the American people. In fact, the oath, as written, states:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. (emphasis mine)
The Constitution. That is all that he is explicitly sworn to protect. See the idea is that the Constitution protects us and he protects it. The whole point of this country, that we, the people, are ruled by laws not by men, is right there. We elect men to write the laws and to carry out the laws (that’s you, Mr. President) and to interpret the laws, but not to take action towards or against or for us directly, unlike how, for example, a king could behave.
So the oath doesn’t mandate that he do whatever is necessary (including ignoring a law and conducted surveillance without a court order) to protect us. Maybe somewhere else in Article II? Nope. In fact, just before the end, it declares that the President “shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed”. Uh, hold on. Bush and company say Article II grants him powers that allow him to ignore the FISA law. Yet, not only does it fail to explicitly state that his primary role is to protect us, the people, it states that he is to execute the laws (and the rest of it is clear that “Laws” does not just refer to those laid out here, but also those written by Congress). So not doing what he is required to do in order to carry out a task that is just implied? Bullsh*t.
Let’s play make believe though. Let’s accept (with a truckful of sugar to be sure) that Article II does overrule the FISA law. I never did finish reading it, maybe something in it does unconstitutionally restrict the Executive and the Constitution is the supreme law of the land. Still doesn’t matter. Still a case of the Administration slapping us all in the face with a red herring (and of course telling us that if we don’t let them, the big scary monster under the bed will skin us with a potato peeler, light our nostril hairs on fire, and brunch on our intestines).
See there’s this other part of the Constitution (one that is still there despite the PATRIOT Act). The Bill of Rights. (Of course, most of you know the Simpsons and American Idol better.) The Fourth Amendment (still part of the Constitution and thus on equal footing as Article II) has been interpreted by the Supreme Court as preventing the government from conducting a wiretap without a court order. So, yeah, the FISA law, irrelevant. The Consttution not only does not allow the administration to conduct this program, but implicitly prohibits it.
None of this matters though. Is there any army of protesters camped out in front of the White House? Nope. Do the polls (yes, I still say f*ck them) show that people are outraged that the Administration has admitted to violating the Constitution? Nope. What’s the biggest story coming from Washington right now? The ports deal. Last week? A hunting accident.
Go call these people and these people and tell them to investigate and take whatever action is necessary. Do it now, before our right to redress grievances gets overridden.
(Disclaimers: 1) Hello NSAbot or Echelon or whatever your name is. My talk of flying over the White House was a metaphor. I have no intention to harm the president. Just exercising my right to free speech. 2) I recognize the core details of the program are still unknown so everything I’ve said is based off of what is known, what the President has said, and what those members of Congress who did know about the program have said. It’s possible that the full details could show that the program is legal, but based on the information that is public, I think we’ve got a better chance of reading Bush’s translation of War and Peace. 3) I am not a lawyer so all legal interpretations are based off, you know, common sense.)
[...] I planned to take a sabbath today and was not going to write anything. Then I listened to This Week. On today’s show Senator Feingold announced he will introduce a resolution to censure the President over his authorization of the NSA wiretapping program. I’ve made it clear what I think about the program so I am all for the resolution. As such, I have already contacted (via web form) one of my senators (the form on the other senator’s page doesn’t seem to be working, I think due to it trying to access an internal IP address) and suggest, whether you agree with the resolution or not, that you contact your senators as well. [...]
[...] I know I just explained all this a few days ago, but I’m so floored by Chambliss’s lack of reading comprehension that I can’t help but go over it again. (Since I started writing, I have received responses from both Chambliss and Senator Johnny Isakson to my webform submitted requests that they support Feingold’s censure resolution). The email from Chambliss is clearly a form letter which makes no reference to my request (not that I seriously expected his support, given that even the Democrats are running away like scared little girls because they care more about getting re-elected than protecting your Constitutional rights). [...]