Fearmonger Nation: A Victory for the Constitution?
Finally! Constitution Wins, GOP Fearmongering Loses In Terror War By Skeeter Sanders
House Democrats Stand Firm and Refuse to Reward Telecom Firms With Immunity From Lawsuits for Turning Over Customer Records to the Government Without Court Warrants, in Violation of the Fourth Amendment; GOP Walkout Proves Beyond Doubt Republicans’ Disregard for the Bill of Rights in the War on Terror
If there were any lingering doubts that the Republican Party in 2008 bears no resemblance to the Republican Party that was co-founded in 1854 as an anti-slavery, pro-human-rights party, those doubts were removed in dramatic fashion last week.
In a display that revealed just how far the GOP has strayed from its original purpose, Republican members of the House of Representatives staged a walkout Thursday after House Democrats refused to bring up for a vote a bill to extend the controversial Protect America Act that authorized the Bush administration to implement electronic surveillance on suspected terrorists’ telephone and Internet communications with Americans without court warrants.
Bush objected to extending the Protect America Act unless it contained a provision shielding telecommunications companies from invasion-of-privacy lawsuits stemming from the companies’ turning over their customer records to the government without first requiring the government to produce court warrants.
That provision is unconstitutional on its face. It deprives the American people of their First Amendment right to petition their government — in this case, the court system — for the redress of grievances; namely, the government spying on them without first obtaining a court warrant nor with any probable cause to seek a court warrant in the first place.
That standard is clearly required under the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution — which a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court declared in 1972 the government must follow; if it doesn’t, then the government is breaking the law — period.