Extrajudicial

Posted by Lex, on October 1, 2010

Back in the days before foreign policy got poisoned by partisanship (I jest), I was compelled at times to defend what other people chose to view as constitutional violations by President Obama’s predecessor. The salient issue at that juncture was whether normal congressional legislation requiring FISA oversight of executive branch exploitation of signals intelligence that might or might not have passed through US telecoms (and therefore potentially rendered US citizens liable to unwarranted snooping) could be safely disregarded by a Commander-in-Chief exercising his Article II powers in a time of war. In short, could President Bush authorize warrantless wiretaps on known terrorists overseas even if one end of their conversations terminated in or routed through US terrestrial architecture?

I argued yes: Congress could not through normal legislation restrict the constitutional powers of a co-equal branch of government. Others argued, “No, he’s shredding the Constitution, and that.” This over intercepted email and telephony data.

Credo

"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me."

— John Paul Jones

"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature"

— George Bernard Shaw, Caesar and Cleopatra

"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."

— Friedrich Nietzsche

"A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."

— Edmund Burke

"Μολὼν λαβέ"

— Leonidas

"Blogito Ergo Sum"

— Neptunus Lex