There is really nothing I can disagree about in this piece by Glenn Greenwald. The Department of Justice is making insane and insupportable claims of executive power (.pdf) in an effort to prevent the public from learning the true scope of Bush’s illegal warrantless surveillance. They are even making arguments that are broader than anything (except the Unitary Executive nonsense) that the Bush administration attempted in court. It is extremely disappointing, it is unjustifiable, and it is dangerous. If the Obama administration’s position prevails we will have fourth amendment rights but no means of protecting them.
I know that Obama doesn’t want to get a bad reputation with the Intelligence Community like JFK, who wanted to “splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it into the winds” after the Bay of Pigs fiasco. But this is not acceptable. This is wrong, and it is not consistent with his oath to uphold the Constitution. I will wait to see if opponents of this attempted power grab emerge on the right. They were mostly silent during the Bush years but we could use their help now because Obama is riding high and the left is distracted with economic matters.
