POLICE STATE / MILITARY - LOOKING GLASS NEWS | |
SECRET LAWS |
|
by Kevin Drum Washington Monthly Entered into the database on Tuesday, December 13th, 2005 @ 19:25:21 MST |
|
SECRET LAWS....John Gilmore is suing the government because
he doesn't think he should be required to show ID before boarding a commercial
flight. I think this is stupid and he deserves to be thrown out of court. At least, that's
what I'd think if it weren't for this: The Bush administration...claims that the ID requirement is necessary for
security but has refused to identify any actual regulation requiring it. A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals seemed skeptical
of the Bush administration's defense of secret laws and regulations but
stopped short of suggesting that such a rule would be necessarily unconstitutional. "How do we know there's an order?" Judge Thomas Nelson asked.
"Because you said there was?" ....The Justice Department has said it could identify the secret law under
seal, which would be available to the 9th Circuit but not necessarily Gilmore's
lawyers. But any public description would not be permitted, the department
said. WTF? Call me naive, but I've never heard of a secret law. I've heard
of secret courts and secret evidence — which are bad enough already —
but not secret laws. When did this happen? And another thing. How could it possibly harm national security to identify
the text of the law that requires passengers to show ID before boarding a plane?
Maybe someone with a more vivid imagination than me can come up with something,
but I can't. POSTSCRIPT: Seriously, is this true? I'm just gobsmacked.
Congress is passing laws that the American public isn't allowed to know about?
Any of us might be prosecuted under one of these laws that we don't know exists?
Courts are being asked to interpret laws they've never seen? This gives Kafakesque a very chilling and newly concrete meaning. |