Comments on: Obama Admin. Ordered to Disclose Evidence in National Security Letter Case http://pubrecord.org/law/3375/obama-admin-ordered-disclose-evidence/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=obama-admin-ordered-disclose-evidence Intrepid New Journalism Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:20:11 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Louis P. Quinn http://pubrecord.org/law/3375/obama-admin-ordered-disclose-evidence/comment-page-1/#comment-236 Louis P. Quinn Wed, 12 Aug 2009 07:46:39 +0000 http://pubrecord.org/?p=3375#comment-236 Any gag order which prevents any method of contesting it, IS unconstitutional. What if they were asking for the records of a Congressman or Senator, or someone they were having an affair with? You couldn't go to the press and you couldn't go to the courts. They could sweep up all this blackmail information without ever worrying about their paper trail being discovered. At a minimum the gag order must expire in a reasonable time. How long does it take to prove someone is a threat? If 90 days is not enough, then the requesting agency must go in front of a judge to explain why? This is not about terrorism, it is about embarrassment. When people start finding out who is being monitored they will see a pattern. This pattern could be as innocuous as indicating a high level of incompetent judgment being shown by the investigators, or it could reveal much darker motives for selecting their targets. The unlimited gag order limits any interference from this messy democratic process. The Constitution gave congress considerable powers over the administrative branch. After Watergate the Congress began making laws that would automatically assert their authority over the administrative branch. Congress recognized that a singular administrator could fragment and divide a congress and so it created laws in Watergate's aftermath that were the first attempts to codify the Constitutions balance of power. If congress were politically co-opted, the courts could then enforce the law, (and by extension the authority), over the administrative branch. Except the courts were co-opted too. The unexamined state secrets defense has given the administrative branch a club to beat down or delay the Congress and the Courts. We now stand at the edge of the tyrannical abyss, but that is a secret that the American Courts are all too willing to keep until democracy is in it's grave. Louis P. Quinn Any gag order which prevents any method of contesting it, IS unconstitutional. What if they were asking for the records of a Congressman or Senator, or someone they were having an affair with? You couldn’t go to the press and you couldn’t go to the courts. They could sweep up all this blackmail information without ever worrying about their paper trail being discovered.

At a minimum the gag order must expire in a reasonable time. How long does it take to prove someone is a threat? If 90 days is not enough, then the requesting agency must go in front of a judge to explain why?

This is not about terrorism, it is about embarrassment. When people start finding out who is being monitored they will see a pattern. This pattern could be as innocuous as indicating a high level of incompetent judgment being shown by the investigators, or it could reveal much darker motives for selecting their targets.

The unlimited gag order limits any interference from this messy democratic process.

The Constitution gave congress considerable powers over the administrative branch. After Watergate the Congress began making laws that would automatically assert their authority over the administrative branch. Congress recognized that a singular administrator could fragment and divide a congress and so it created laws in Watergate’s aftermath that were the first attempts to codify the Constitutions balance of power. If congress were politically co-opted, the courts could then enforce the law, (and by extension the authority), over the administrative branch.

Except the courts were co-opted too. The unexamined state secrets defense has given the administrative branch a club to beat down or delay the Congress and the Courts. We now stand at the edge of the tyrannical abyss, but that is a secret that the American Courts are all too willing to keep until democracy is in it’s grave.
Louis P. Quinn

]]> By: Jeffrey Kaye http://pubrecord.org/law/3375/obama-admin-ordered-disclose-evidence/comment-page-1/#comment-222 Jeffrey Kaye Sun, 09 Aug 2009 18:36:40 +0000 http://pubrecord.org/?p=3375#comment-222 Thanks, Jason, for publicizing this very important case. Many might believe that with the ascension of Obama that the horrors of the Patriot Act and other attacks on our civil liberties are a quaint item from the past. That is hardly the case, and hopefully the American people will wake up soon to the fact they have an Executive Branch that is out of control and threatens whatever shreds of democracy are left in this country. I read today's The Public Record and decided to donate, to keep this kind of reporting alive. I hope others to this as well, or do so when they are able. This is a totally unsolicited appeal, though I admit I've been a contributor to content on this site. I make this appeal for the same reason I sometimes send content (with no remuneration, so this appeal is not self-serving), because I believe this site, along with a handful of others on the net, offers crucial news and analysis that simply isn't available anywhere else. Thanks, Jason, for publicizing this very important case. Many might believe that with the ascension of Obama that the horrors of the Patriot Act and other attacks on our civil liberties are a quaint item from the past. That is hardly the case, and hopefully the American people will wake up soon to the fact they have an Executive Branch that is out of control and threatens whatever shreds of democracy are left in this country.

I read today’s The Public Record and decided to donate, to keep this kind of reporting alive. I hope others to this as well, or do so when they are able. This is a totally unsolicited appeal, though I admit I’ve been a contributor to content on this site. I make this appeal for the same reason I sometimes send content (with no remuneration, so this appeal is not self-serving), because I believe this site, along with a handful of others on the net, offers crucial news and analysis that simply isn’t available anywhere else.

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