Obama Brief on State Secrets Rankles the Left

[Karmadillo]

Source: New York Times

Obama Brief on State Secrets Rankles the Left Sign in to Recommend
Published: August 3, 2009

A Supreme Court filing from the Obama administration last month has set off alarm bells on the left.

The filing was a friend-of-the-court brief, and it mostly dealt with an excruciatingly technical question about the attorney-client privilege. But its last five pages were about the state secrets privilege, which was not at issue in the case. That privilege, a favorite tool of the Bush administration, allows the government to shut down lawsuits by invoking national security.

The Obama administration’s brief argued, though no one had asked, that the state secrets privilege was rooted in the Constitution.

The federal government files friend-of-the-court briefs in the Supreme Court all the time, and it is not unusual for it to alert the court to related issues, usually to make sure that the court’s ruling is no broader than it needs to be.

But the filing has raised eyebrows and suspicions among liberals already disappointed that the Obama administration has not rejected a number of legal doctrines associated with the Bush administration.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/04/us/politics/04bar.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

[FrenchieCat]

1. Oh Boy.....they are going after him with everything they've got.....

They found something from last Month.....!

[PSPS]

2. It's a valid criticism

Obama has a long list of campaign pledges he has actively worked against actually implementing. A few are:

- Iraq occupation
- Wiretapping
- Guantanamo
- State secrets
- Network of gulags
- More "signing statements"

[FrenchieCat]

3. When it rains it pours!

Guess this is breaking news because? Because corporate interests are not interested in health care reform...so they will just pile it on.


As for you.....I know! He should have been perfect in every way, every day!

[Zhade]

6. He promised to restore the rule of law. Asking him to keep his word isn't asking for perfection.

How do you breathe through all that sand?

[solstice]

5. Apparently if they happened last month we aren't supposed to notice them.

[PSPS]

10. Apparently. However, I prefer ideals over idolatry.

[truedelphi]

30. And several years ago, he was all

Universal Single Payer Health Care - all we need is Sixty Dems in the Senate and it's a done deal.

Then there is his flip flop on Palestine. He used to realize that The Israelis took over the Palestinians' land of birth, and he often conveniently forgets that fact now.

[robinlynne]

8. They?

[TexasTrue]

16. Do you work for the Obama Administration? Please be honest

because everything one reads by you defends Barack Obama, even if he follows the most odious path of George W Bush's White House. Are you on his staff or were you on his campaign staff? thank you.

[Better Believe It]

25. Right! Those damn civil libertarians and Bill of Rights defenders. They can all go to hell!

[solstice]

4. Seems like the Obama admin. never met a Bush secrecy policy they didn't like

and try to take even further.

[Solly Mack]

7. K&R

[Q3JR4]

9. Once a president claims a power for himself

and nobody bats an eye do you really expect for his successors to willingly give up that power?

Unchecked executive power is bad when a republican has it, and it's equally bad when a democrat has it.

It's even worse when the other two branches of government, both of which are supposed to serve as a check on the executive, abdicate their responsibility and authority in favor of having the relevant decisions made for them.

Q3JR4
You're doing a heck of a job Mr. O.

[ima_sinnic]

11. the "constitutional scholar" has raised my blood pressure higher than bush ever did

at least bush never pretended that anything was going to "change" or that the rule of law should be respected.

[Vidar]

12. Executive privilege is a polite term for royal prerogative.

[fasttense]

19. Amen to that. n/t

[depakid]

13. Obama's Justice Department is a disgrace

No other way to describe it.

[mvd]

20. Why haven't the Bush lawyers been fired?

It appears that Obama is letting the Justice Dept. go without interference, but at some point it should start to get better. It's still early, but I'm getting uneasy.

[Autumn]

22. What I have observed from many other

administrations is, if they haven't been replaced they have been embraced.x(

[No Elephants]

26. Bush lawyer are not decidig what the D of J files in court. And it's not that

early, either. Several apeals have already gone to SCOTUS level, with the Obama administration taking up exactly where Bushco left off.

Once a SCOTUS precedent is set, it's set for a very long time (in most cases).

[mvd]

29. OK, I won't argue with you there as..

you seem to know your constitutional law. But the Bush lawyers who are there still should be fired.

[ixion]

14. Yet again, Obama follows Bush's Path to Tyranny

I'm really very sorry that I voted for him at this point. :(

[BobRossi]

17. 1++++++++++ nt

[TexasTrue]

18. The only change was getting Bush out of the White House.

I am grateful for that but feel punkd at the rest of the story.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

24. lulz

[Libertas1776]

15. Boy

I don't think I can take any more of this "change," my head is spinning so fast. You know, I am starting to believe that a lot of those people on the right are in the right for the sheer fact that they are criticizing Obama...of course, for all the wrong stupid backward ass reasons. If anything, he is probably going to be their best friend (Can anyone say secret right wing Bushie operative plant). Damn, my tin foil hat is itchy. At any rate, he certainly ain't no friend of the Left, or, you know, people who believe in the constitution.

[Bluenorthwest]

21. Just disgusting

[glitch]

23. "the left"? People who follow the US Constitution and the Rule of Law are "the left" now.

Well what do you know about that?

[No Elephants]

27. Um, what part of the Constitution governs the alleged states secret privilege again? What Bull!

[justiceischeap]

28. Okay, so Obama is REALLY a Repug in Dem wool or...

Something is going on behind the scenes that we don't know about. Why he would go back on so many things that apply to "restoring the rule of law" makes me wonder just what happened during the Shrub admin. Did Darth Cheney paint the US into such a tight corner that we have to keep these ridiculous laws? That's the only other option I can think of, well, other than what I typed in the subject line.