Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Universities fire employees for moral turpitude, don't they?


I know it's an old-fashioned way of putting things, and it's vague, and I would be among the first out the door for my dirty mouth, but still and all....

Emptywheel brings us the news (read it all here):
After significant efforts, Senator Whitehouse has finally gotten the Administration to declassify the fourth of the four outrageous opinions John Yoo wrote to justify the warrantless wiretap program (the other three Pixie Dust provisions basically allow the President to write his own laws). This one pertains to the exclusivity provision of FISA, which states clearly that FISA was the "exclusive means by which electronic surveillance ... and the interception of domestic wire, oral and electronic communications may be conducted."

Here's what that purported genius, John Yoo, did with FISA's exclusivity provision:

Unless Congress made a clear statement in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that it sought to restrict presidential authority to conduct warrantless searches in the national security area -- which it has not -- then the statute must be construed to avoid [such] a reading.
The University of California, through its law school, continues to employ Mr. Yoo.

I cannot imagine enabling the Bush administration as a morally neutral action.
--the BB

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