warrantless wiretapping. can you hear me now?

questionable wiretapping, likely illegal was authorized as of 2004 to help the White House fight the war on terror.

Top Justice Department official thought President Bush’s no-warrant wiretapping program was so questionable that he refused for a time to reauthorize it, leading to a standoff with White House officials at the bedside of the ailing attorney general, a Senate panel was told Tuesday. Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he refused to recertify the program because Attorney General John Ashcroft had reservations about its legality just before falling ill with pancreatitis in March 2004. The White House, Comey said, recertified the program without the Justice Department’s signoff, allowing it to operate for about three weeks without concurrence on whether it was legal.

“Practice fights terror and saves lives”

Those were the words of White House Secretary Tony Snow’s response to questions about this revelation during the White House briefing today. Its a good answer, but it may not be good enough because what the White House did was circumvent our law, precedent, the legislative and judicial systems by authorizing these laws in the name of terror. I’m not trying to be dense here, I get it, I understand why it is so important to the White House, but this sets a terrible precedent.

If our president can be above the law, if our president can dictate and refuse to negotiate with the legislature and judiciary, two bodies carefully considered by our founders and explicitly created in the Constitution. If we allow our presidents to get around our law, can we truly say we are living in a democracy much longer? Are we in the process of removing power from the legislature and anointing the executive our new King? As you consider the answer to that question, remember that 1.5 years from now the “king” might be named Hillary Clinton or Barrack Obama, is your answer still the same? I hope not.

Fred Soto is an Attorney and Entrepreneur from the Silicon Valley.
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