There's This Thing Called The Law

The Ace of Spades is but one of the many voices on the right that want to have it all ways at all times, and either willfully or just obviously neglect fundamental truths when making their ridiculous assertions. Yesterday he delivered this beaut claiming equivalence between a legal and an illegal program. The post was about the British government's use of wiretaps in the slowly unraveling civil aviation plot, conducted 100% under existing British law:

Note that when bugs are being planted inside the area afforded the greatest amount of privacy protection -- the home -- the "warrant" required is a warrant not from an independent judge, but from a member of Tony Blair's government, his Secretary of State. (A position I confess sounds American, but I imagine the UK Telegraph knows what it's talking about.)

How, exactly, is this different than Bush's Attorney General issuing similar warrants on his own authority? That's provided for in the Patriot Act, or at least was, before liberals went after it. (I confess I don't know if that's still permitted or not.)

It's different because one (the British system) is legal and another (the NSA program) is in question. And instead of taking the word of the guy who confesses that he "doesn't know" what the hell he's talking about, I'll take the word of the federal district court judge who ruled on this today:

Fox News reports a federal district court in Detroit has ruled that the Bush administration’s NSA warrantless wiretapping program is unconstitutional and ordered an immediate halt to it.

A separate federal district court in San Francisco had previously rejected the administration’s argument that the courts could not hear the case due to a “state secrets” privilege. The lawsuits have alleged that NSA program violated the First and Fourth Amendments, as well as a number of federal statutes, including the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The defendants included AT&T and the federal government.

To which Mr. Ace pithily responded, Whatever. And then wonders why the Democrats in Congress haven't just offered legislation to fix the problems they have with the NSA program. 'Cause, you know, Democrats are in control of Congress.

You can argue whether or not the British way of doing things is proper or not, but it's immaterial to the discussion. The point is that the Brits acted within their own system of laws. The President, since BEFORE 9/11 mind you, most certainly has not, stepping outside the prevailing law of the FISA court to trump federal statutes. That makes it unconstitutional, as was verified by this ruling today. See, there's this thing called the law, and it varies from country to country, and the common sense opinion is that one's heads of state should follow the laws of his own country. I could get a map if you need more specificity.

Of course, this won't be the end of the legal challenges, but this is a significant victory for anyone who, you know, is cool with the rule of law.

Glenn Greenwald has more in-depth coverage of this story. The judge is getting totally smeared by the right, apparently because she let the facts of the law get in the way of the Great Big War on Terra!!!