Post 969

USA: Molly Ivins: The Day the Con­sti­tu­tion Died: “When, in the future, you find your­self won­der­ing, ‘What­ever hap­pened to the Con­sti­tu­tion?’ you will want to go back and look at June 8, 2004. That was the day the attor­ney gen­eral of the United States — a.k.a. ‘the nation’s top law enforce­ment offi­cer’ — refused to pro­vide the Sen­ate Judi­ciary Com­mit­tee with his department’s memos con­cern­ing tor­ture. In order to jus­tify tor­ture, these memos declare that the pres­i­dent is bound by nei­ther U.S. law nor inter­na­tional treaties. We have put our­selves on the same moral level as Sad­dam Hus­sein, the only dif­fer­ence being quan­tity. Quite lit­er­ally, the pres­i­dent may as well wear a crown — for­get that ‘no man is above the law’ jazz. We used to talk about ‘the impe­r­ial pres­i­dency’ under Nixon, but this is the real thing. The Pentagon’s legal staff con­curred in this incred­i­ble conclusion. ”

Tagged as: law, legal, office, USA