Monthly Archives: May 2007

The War Against Legality Continues

Posted on May 4, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

There are consistent themes to this administration: incompetence, kleptocracy come to mind. But one area where it's shown disturbing competence is the war against the Rule of Law. The Padilla case and the ongoing attempts to keep law and lawyers out of Guantánamo are the most visible aspects of this strategy (ignore the minor bit of tactical posturing today — this is just about trying to avoid losing a lawsuit), but the corruption of the DoJ is part of the piece.

So here's the latest installment: Bush Wants Phone Firms Immune to Privacy Suits. See, those pesky lawyers are trying to get phone companies to obey the law. We can't have that if it gets in the way of our illegal wiretaps!

Posted in Civil Liberties | Comments Off

Perverting the Course of Justice

Posted on May 3, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

I have no idea who “looseheadprop” is, but he or she writes one heck of a great essay over at Firedoglake on The Federal Prosecutor. You should read the whole thing, but in case you're lazy, here's the conclusion:

In short, [then-Attorney General and later Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson saw] the Hatch [Act] as a good excuse for USAs and AUSAs to be able to fend off attempts by politicos to co-opt the awesome power of their office to achieve political ends.

For over a generation, it was these principals that were inculcated into DOJ lawyers serving in the USAOs. Young lawyers like Jim Comey cut their teeth on these ideals. And for my entire professional life, I have seen no other standard, nor ever guessed that any other standard might ever be applied.

Contrary to the gobbletygook, clapptrap, distortions and apparently outright lies being slung around these days; this is not a question of a change in style from a previous administration to the current one.

This is a wholesale departure from long established traditions and well settled fully functioning and successful policies that have served this nation well under both Republican and Democratic administrations since at least our grandparent's day.

I don't know what Jim Comey is going to say today. But I know that he was “brought up” as a lawyer in the same traditions that all federal prosecutors of my generation learned. I also know that I have long admired his integrity and courage and have long feared his wrath (not that it has ever been directed at me, but it is terrifying to witness).

As a side note, I was at the Law Day dinner at the Waldorf on May 1st. All the talk that night was on two topics: 1)The USA firing scandal/raping and pillaging of DOJ, and 2) an online petition that was circulated that day calling for the restoration of habeas corpus.

I am happy to report that lawyers, judges, and other public servants known to me to be registered republicans where amoung the most outraged with respect to the former, and amoung the ardent supporters of the latter.

This is not about political party any more. This is about the rule of law. It is also about whether we are a civilized country striving to reach our best aspirations or whether we have sunk into barbarism where might makes right and where the term “serves at the pleasure of the president” is twisted from a courtly expression used by one who would resign in protest if he could not in good conscience carry out a directive from the President which the appointee felt to be wrong, into an excuse, a coverup for nefarious meddling into the charging decisions made at the District level.

As Lord Moulton once famously observed

“The measure of a civilization is the degree of its obedience to the unenforceable.”

As opposed to the current administrations view “if is it is not a clear violation of an often used criminal statute, then it's perfect;ly OK.” And even then they have some carve out exceptions for “quaint” crimes involving violations of the Geneva conventions.

I will leave you with one last, chilling thought form the eloquent Lord Moulton

“Tyranny is yielding to the lust of the governing.”

If you are a law professor, lawyer, or law student, please consider signing the online petition to Congress requesting that it restore habeas corpus.

Posted in Politics: US: GW Bush Scandals | 2 Comments

Obama MySpace Update

Posted on May 3, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

Micha Sifry is all over the Obama/MySpace story. Latest update is at techPresident — Obama's MySpace Mess: Enter the Shovel Brigade.

Posted in Politics: US: 2008 Elections | 1 Comment

‘Rudy is Nuts’ Story Gaining Traction

Posted on May 3, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

Vanity Fair does Crazy for Rudy.

No, that is wrong: virtually every Full Rudy veteran expects the implosion to happen any second. It's in some bizarro parallel reality that the Rudy campaign achieves verisimilitude and even—strange, too, when you consider the cronies and hacks who surround him—appears, at times, adept.

It's a Catch-22 kind of nuttiness. What with all his personal issues—the children; the women; the former wives; Kerik and the Mob; his history of interminable, bitter, asinine hissy fits; the look in his eye; and, now, Judi!, his current, prospective, not-ready-for-prime-time First Lady—he'd have to be nuts to think he could successfully run for president. But nutty people don't run for president—certainly they don't get far if they do.

…

And, speaking of banana republics, there was Rudy's extra-legal plan to set aside the 2001 mayoral election (after his term limit had been reached, so he couldn't run again) and, by legislative acclamation (thwarted only at the last minute), extend his term.

Still, say what you want, Rudy's fearlessness or kookiness does break through the political clutter and leave a powerful impression—that may be the biggest part of the political job.

The wives: if Rudy's marital history isn't crazy, it's surely way over the line of middle-class domestic political norms. You can't marry your second cousin (Regina Peruggi, now president of Kingsborough Community College) and, on top of that, annul the deal, as though this were the 18th century. You can't, in a public snit, break up with your wife in a news conference (provoking that wife, Donna Hanover, to call a counter–news conference where she suggested he was a public liar and adulterer). You can't carry on, as we used to say, in front of everybody, not without some major contrition—not if you want a political future.

Or can you?

The bit about the Mayoral election is why I think the man is a dangerous figure, one without the fundamental small-d democratic DNA we desperately need in our leaders. Romney, Hagel, even Huckabee would be far less likely to do something really really weird to us.

Of course, that's not what the media are going to focus on. Nor the keeping his mistress on the city payroll (Wolfowitz, anyone?). No, they're getting all worked up about that story about Rudy and the Ferret.