Dueling legal advice on NSA surveillance

March 21, 2006

Two months ago, the president explained the legal advice he received about his warrantless search program.

“[T]he FISA law was written in 1978. We’re having this discussion in 2006. It’s a different world. And FISA is still an important tool. It’s an important tool. And we still use that tool. But also — and we — look — I said, ‘Look, is it possible to conduct this program under the old law?’ And people said, ‘It doesn’t work in order to be able to do the job we expect us to do.'”

Got it. Bush asked his lawyers whether he could conduct domestic surveillance under FISA. Bush acknowledged that these people said he could not, because “the old law…doesn’t work.” (There is no new law, of course, just the old law that the president decided he no longer wanted to follow.)

Yesterday, Bush seemed to quote a different set of lawyers.

“I was concerned about the legality of the program, and so I asked lawyers — which you got plenty of them in Washington — (laughter) — to determine whether or not I could do this legally. And they came back and said, ‘Yes.'”

So, which is it? Did Bush get legal advice from competing sets of lawyers?

Correct me if I am wrong, but isn’t this like the “Carl Spackler” presidency?

  • It’s called “opinion shopping.” You ask enough lawyers, and someone will come up with the answer you want.

    Or he could just be lying. Again.

  • Semper – is it lying when you don’t know the difference? This guy just says whatever comes to (what’s left of) his mind. It doesn’t matter what he says, because the MSM never calls him on whatever idiocy comes out. Remember his statements that Sadaam did not let the weapons inspectors in, and that’s why we invaded?

    And CB, the Righty Wingnuts claim that the “War Powers” gives him the right to suspend the 4th Amendment. That’s the “law” that they use as a fig leaf for this criminal’s actions. Just an FYI.

  • Bushworld
    “the old law…doesn’t work.”
    and so I asked lawyers And they came back and said, ‘Yes.'”

    And of course!! If they said “no” ….they would become the “old lawyers who don’t work”.

  • since when did Bush’s lawyers become more important than the congress and the supreme court? ever since he won the presidency in a courtroom?

  • Rather than worrying about “activist judges,” we need to worry more about the activist president and his activist lawers.

  • angry young man,

    Not to mention the Constitution.

    I don’t know about you guys, but I’m just going to ignore the 13th Amendment. Need a little help around the house, and that damn minimum wage is just a pain in the ass. And its what, 140 years old?

    Hey, the Old Testament says I can have slaves, so why not?

  • 2Manchu – darn right. While we’re at it, lets bring back stoning and other Old Testament punishments for not following THE 10 Commandments.

    Yet – like the discussions on “..Bible courses in Georgia…”, I believe there’s a number of different variations of these as well.

    Oh well…we’ll just follow Mr. Bush here.

  • The FISA law is quite specific (and generous to a fault from the point of view of presidential power). War has not been declared. Police action has not been declared. The US was never credibly threated by Iraq. There has been a willful, unproductive, costly invasion to satisfy the needs of our brain-addled leader. That is all.

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