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A novelist could not have come up with a more twisted authoritarian justification for government power. Two Republican-appointed justices of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court threw out a lawsuit against George W. Bush’s program of wiretapping phone conversations without warrants (which the Constitution’s 4th Amendment clearly prohibits). On what basis was the lawsuit thrown out? The justices said the citizens who brought the lawsuit couldn’t demonstrate “standing;” in other words, the plaintiffs couldn’t prove they’d been wiretapped without a warrant. According to the justices, you have to be able to prove that you’ve been subject to warrantless wiretapping in order to bring a case against the government for it. But the reason that these citizens couldn’t prove they were subject to warrantless wiretapping is that the list of those who’ve been targeted is classified as a state secret. Because no citizen can show they’ve been wiretapped without a warrant, no citizen can challenge the constitutionality of the Bush administration’s actions.

This kind of circular authoritarianism belongs in Soviet kangaroo courts and novels by George Orwell. It does not belong in the United States of America.

(Source: Associated Press, July 6 2007)