Department of Injustice Takes Another Hit

You just have to wonder when it is all going to end, and the answer comes back every time, January 20th 2009. A 3 judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has found that the FBI violated Congressman William Jefferson’s constitutional rights in their unlawful search and seizure of his congressional office. The AP article has been published in the Chron and can be found here.

Jefferson claims vindication, but no one is saying that he is pure as driven snow because there’s still that 90 large that they found in his refrigerator freezer. The ultimate in frozen assets.

But what we all can say now is that the FBI, in completing this heinous act, was clearly out of bounds. Everyone knew it. The Constitution prohibits the Executive Branch from using its law enforcement powers to interfere with the Legislative Branch. It’s called the Speech and Debate Clause (Article 1 Section 6 Clause 1) which is there to protect the integrity of the legislative process by insuring the independence of individual legislators.

The search was OK, the justices said, but the FBI erred in seizing Jefferson’s congressional documents which could then be examined by the Executive Branch. A clear breach.

But it’s just the times, isn’t it? Everywhere you look in the Bush Regime you see excesses and abuse of power. It’s not just here and there, it’s institutional. Trampling on rights, abuse of power, lying to the people, it’s all part of a culture that has flourished and grown for the past 6 years. I think it has gotten to the point that they really are not aware any more of what is legal and what is illegal, incapable of knowing the difference between right and wrong. And isn’t the latter a common criterion in deciding whether a person is insane?

OK, rant over.

Makeup of the court panel.

Curiously, the court panel consisted of justices who have all served in some capacity in the Injustice Department, and not at any time in the Legislative branch. Chief Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg, one of the judges on the panel, is best remembered as a Reagan nominee to the Supreme Court until they dug up the dirt that Ginsburg smoked Mary Jane while at university and even when he was a professor at Harvard Law. Likewise, Judge Karen Lecraft Henderson was a 1986 Reagan appointee. However, Judge Judith W. Rogers was a Clinton appointee.

All three agreed that the FBI overstepped its purview and needed to let Congressman Jefferson filter which documents pertained to business of the legislature.

While not exonerating Jefferson, as Jefferson had hoped, the court’s opinion goes a long way toward restoring the government we had before the Bush Regime took over. I doubt we will ever see this happen again.

But then, I could be wrong.