Sun Devil 92
Diamond Member
- Apr 2, 2015
- 32,078
- 11,094
Robert Bork and the FISA Follies
Robert Bork saw it all coming.
Not, of course, today’s clash of recriminations, between a sitting Republican president who’s accused his Democratic predecessor of having tapped his phones even as the other side accuses this same Republican’s campaign team of having colluded with Moscow to steal the November election. For all his wisdom, the late judge and onetime Supreme Court nominee could not have predicted this.
What Bork did appreciate, and more keenly than almost anyone else at the time, is that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act at the root of this mess—i.e., whether or not there were such warrants on Donald Trump or his associates—was not a reform but an abuse. He outlined his objections in a prescient op-ed for this newspaper on March 9, 1978, shortly before the Senate passed the bill. In particular, he argued, the courts set up by this law would work to obscure the responsibility the “reform” was meant to ensure:
“When an attorney general must decide for himself, without shield of a warrant, whether to authorize surveillance, and must accept the consequences if things go wrong, there is likely to be more care taken. The statute, however, has the effect of immunizing everyone, and sooner or later that fact will be taken advantage of.” In other words, if administration officials could not hide behind court approvals, they would think long and hard about their surveillance decisions.
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And here we are.......
Thanks to Ted, the liar of the senate, kennedy...and his butt-buddy Joe Biden....we never got Bork....
This is for those of you who will post the same bulls**t regarding Bork that was no less true then as it is now.
Robert Bork saw it all coming.
Not, of course, today’s clash of recriminations, between a sitting Republican president who’s accused his Democratic predecessor of having tapped his phones even as the other side accuses this same Republican’s campaign team of having colluded with Moscow to steal the November election. For all his wisdom, the late judge and onetime Supreme Court nominee could not have predicted this.
What Bork did appreciate, and more keenly than almost anyone else at the time, is that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act at the root of this mess—i.e., whether or not there were such warrants on Donald Trump or his associates—was not a reform but an abuse. He outlined his objections in a prescient op-ed for this newspaper on March 9, 1978, shortly before the Senate passed the bill. In particular, he argued, the courts set up by this law would work to obscure the responsibility the “reform” was meant to ensure:
“When an attorney general must decide for himself, without shield of a warrant, whether to authorize surveillance, and must accept the consequences if things go wrong, there is likely to be more care taken. The statute, however, has the effect of immunizing everyone, and sooner or later that fact will be taken advantage of.” In other words, if administration officials could not hide behind court approvals, they would think long and hard about their surveillance decisions.
*************************
And here we are.......
Thanks to Ted, the liar of the senate, kennedy...and his butt-buddy Joe Biden....we never got Bork....
This is for those of you who will post the same bulls**t regarding Bork that was no less true then as it is now.
