This editorial is pretty indicative of what we have been hearing concerning Snoopgate in recent days. But, pace Turner and for about the hundredth time, no one doubts the President's power to conduct warrantless searches of foreign agents and, in fact, that is just what FISA provides. The surveillance of US citizens is also permitted, if a warrant is obtained from the secret FISA court. The cases Turner cites are irrelevant to this, as he no doubt knows.
What he is really asserting is that the entire string of cases and statutes controlling the president's powers in the area of foreign intelligence are unconstitutional. I've seen this argument presented a lot in recent days and I'm going to brand it now: it's proto-fascist.
Any fair reading of the constitutional history of this country will conclude that there is simply no area under the Constitution where the president has plenary and exclusive power. Even in the conduct of war, his power is limited, both by the requirement of continuing appropriations and by Congressional oversight of the armed forces. It is most certainly limited by actual statutes passed by Congress and by the Constitution itself; Youngstown Sheet and, more recently, Hamdi show this conclusively.
What Turner is saying is that, despite the 4th amendment and despite the long string of decisions restricting executive power, the president has ALWAYS had war powers that trump both statutes and the Constitution itself. Further, we have no need to worry because these powers are necessary for our national security. All he left out - and others have put it in - is that the administration can be trusted because they are basically moral people who have a special responsibility that is higher than the force of law.
Put simply, this is "Mussolini ha sempre ragione" in American English. No such power exists now or ever has in this country. But, unless we do show a little national spine soon, it will and we can kiss our civil rights goodby when it does. If anyone out there thinks that we can trust future presidents - I won't even mention the Cheney administration here - to stay within self-imposed limits when it comes to intelligence gathering and to resist using the data gathered for political purposes ... well, I have a bridge in Brooklyn that's for sale! Cheap!
-Tracy Lightcap
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