Progressive Minds

So of course the breaking news of the day is that a federal judge has ruled the Bush Administration's warrantless domestic spying program unconstitutional, and has ordered an immediate hault to it.

In her ruling, U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor wrote in part:

The Government appears to argue here that, pursuant to the penumbra of Constitutional language in Article II, and particularly because the President is designated Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, he has been granted the inherent power to violate not only the laws of the Congress but the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution, itself.

We must first note that the Office of the Chief Executive has itself been created, with its powers, by the Constitution. There are no hereditary Kings in America and no powers not created by the Constitution. So all "inherent powers" must derive from that Constitution.

I've been saying all along that Bush believes he is King; that he is a country unto himself.  He believes he is judge and jury.  And the judge's ruling today puts him on notice that he is not.

Federal judge orders end to wiretap program

Read the entire decision by the judge, courtesy of FindLaw:

http://fl1.findlaw.com/news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/nsa/aclunsa81706opn.pdf