DOJ memo claims 4th amendment not valid
The ACLU is reporting that a recently declassified Department of Justice memo from 2001 claims that the Fourth Amendment had no application to domestic military operations.
If this doesn't raise alarm bells in you, I don't know what will. The Fourth Amendment, as you know, protects us against warrantless search and seizures.
The startling claim is not aimed at terrorists in the war zones of Iraq; it directly mentions domestic military operations.
The ACLU says this: 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.
If this doesn't raise alarm bells in you, I don't know what will. The Fourth Amendment, as you know, protects us against warrantless search and seizures.
The startling claim is not aimed at terrorists in the war zones of Iraq; it directly mentions domestic military operations.
The ACLU says this: 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.
Although the Bush administration has never publicly claimed this right, the memo provides a disturbing insight into the way those in power think about and value our rights.
We need to be super vigilant, otherwise we might eventually find ourselves with a Bill of Rights that has little value or meaning.
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