In yesterday’s Los Angeles Times, Jonathan Turley blasted President Obama’s record on civil liberties:
Historically, this country has tended to correct periods of heightened police powers with a pendulum swing back toward greater individual rights. Many were questioning the extreme measures taken by the Bush administration, especially after the disclosure of abuses and illegalities. Candidate Obama capitalized on this swing and portrayed himself as the champion of civil liberties.
However, President Obama not only retained the controversial Bush policies, he expanded on them. The earliest, and most startling, move came quickly.
Today brought better news. MSNBC reports that the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon struck down two PATRIOT Act provisions dealing with probable cause-less searches. The case centered around Brandon Mayfield, an attorney in Portland, was falsely linked to the 2004 Madrid bombings.
Mayfield was arrested and fingerprinted. His fingerprint was falsely matched to a print found in Madrid. After that, the FBI put him “under 24-hour surveillance, listened to his phone calls and surreptitiously searched his home and law office.” This, according to Judge Ann Aiken, crossed the line.
Two provisions down, many more to go. Until then, President Bush’s third term continues.
Have a listen here.
Associate Director of Technology Studies Ryan Radia talks about how to prevent data privacy violations in the Internet age. Your data may be safe if it’s stored on your personal hard drive. But if it’s in the cloud, as with Gmail or Dropbox accounts, you can’t count on the Fourth Amendment to protect you against unreasonable search and seizure. Radia suggests some reforms to outdated laws to better reflect today’s technological realities.
by Hans Bader on June 22, 2010
in Deregulate to Stimulate, Economy, Environment, International, Legal, Nanny State, Nano & Biotech, Personal Liberty, Politics as Usual, Precaution & Risk, Regulation, Sanctimony, Zeitgeist
Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan was instrumental in getting President Clinton to veto a ban on partial-birth abortion. She also lumped together the NRA and KKK as “bad guy” organizations while serving in the Clinton White House.
The Supreme Court upheld an anti-terror law that is part of the Patriot Act, banning “material support” for groups designated as terrorists by the President. It rejected a First Amendment challenge in a 6-to-3 ruling. Jacob Sullum criticizes the provision as being unconstitutionally overbroad. Eugene Volokh comments here.
In another ruling, the Supreme Court made it harder to block biotech food products through meritless nuisance lawsuits, in Monsanto Co. v. Geertson Seed Farms.
It also issued several other rulings that are summarized here.
Earlier, Obama’s most recent Supreme Court nominee, Elena Kagan, failed to properly defend federal laws protecting crime victims while serving in the Justice Department as Solicitor General. Obama nominated a radical law professor to one important appellate judge position, and a judge who made excuses for a sexually-sadistic Roadside Strangler to another important appellate judgeship.
In other news, a Louisiana judge blocked the Obama administration from imposing a blanket ban on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, citing deceit and false claims by the Obama Administration, and a violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, a vital safeguard against arbitrary government action. Earlier, Obama had delayed a clean-up of the Gulf by Louisiana and foreign countries, by imposing unnecessary red tape
People are often surprised to hear how similar President Obama’s policies are to President Bush’s. They shouldn’t be. One may be a Republican and the other a Democrat, but make no mistake. Bush and Obama are two peas in a pod:
-Bush signed a $700 billion bank bailout bill. Obama continued the policy. And he extended it to other sectors, such as the automobile industry.
-Bush tried fiscal stimulus twice while in power. With some help from the Bush team, Obama oversaw the largest fiscal stimulus bill in history. There is occasional talk of another.
-Bush started two land wars in Asia. Obama could end them. Instead, he is committing more troops to Afghanistan.
-Bush oversaw Medicare part D, the largest expansion of government’s role in health care since 1965. Obama also would like to expand government’s health care presence.
-And now, we have the PATRIOT Act. The bill was perhaps the largest expansion of executive power in seventy years, and the Bush administration’s signature legislation. Now that Obama happens to be the executive with all these cool powers, turns out he likes the PATRIOT Act, too. So he wants to extend some of its expiring provisions.
Predictable. Still disappointing.
RSS Updates 
RSS E-Mail Updates 
Twitter 
Facebook 
CEI.org 
WorkPlaceChoice.org 
GlobalWarming.org 
CEI On Demand Video 
Liberty Week Podcast 