Bush trashed the Constitution, handing Obama an executive dictatorship

Bush-era memos saw rights limits in U.S. terror war
Randall Mikkelsen - Reuters - Tuesday, March 3, 2009

The U.S. military could have kicked in doors to raid a suspected terrorist cell in the United States without a warrant under a Bush-era legal memo the Justice Department made public on Monday.

The memo, from October 23, 2001, also said constitutional free-speech protections and a prohibition on unreasonable search and seizure could take a back seat to military needs in fighting terrorism inside the country.

It was one of nine previously undisclosed memos and legal opinions which shed light on former President George W. Bush’s legal guidance as he launched a war against terrorism after the September 11 attacks.

“The government’s compelling interests in wartime justify restrictions on the scope of individual liberty,” it said.

Other memos held that the president had broad power to detain U.S. citizens suspected of terrorism and to suspend treaty obligations on issues as seen fit.

The memos depict an administration apparently determined to assert sweeping powers for the president after the shock of September 11, and add fuel to critics’ charges that fundamental constitutional protections were threatened in the process.

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Surprise! Bush Amended The Constitution!
Lew Rockwell.com Blog - Christopher Manion - March 2, 2009

Actually, he trashed it. Did it escape your notice? Here are a couple of his amendments, secret until now, which didn't even have to pass muster with that nasty liberal Supreme Court! (At least Earl Warren had to find four other justices to go along with him).

"Fourth Amendment protections against unwarranted search and seizure, for instance, did not apply in the United States as long as the president was combating terrorism, the Justice Department said in an Oct. 23, 2001, memo. [Note: VP Cheney said the War On Terrorism would go on for fifty years, so we can assume that the original Fourth Amendment will come back into force in 2059].

"First Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war successfully," Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo wrote, adding later: "The current campaign against terrorism may require even broader exercises of federal power domestically." [Note: Bush went to the U.N. for the authorization to go to war, instead of the Congress, as the original Constitution requires -- but who cares?].