Les Jones: Bush Claims Power to Open Domestic Mail?

January 05, 2007

News > Bush Claims Power to Open Domestic Mail?

From a New York Daily News story that's being published in other papers:

President Bush quietly has claimed sweeping new powers to open Americans' mail without a judge's warrant.
Bush asserted the new authority Dec. 20 after signing legislation that overhauls some postal regulations. He then issued a "signing statement" that declared his right to open mail under emergency conditions, contrary to existing law and contradicting the bill he had just signed, according to experts who have reviewed it.

Here's the text of the signing statement. This seems to be the relevant part:

The executive branch shall construe subsection 404(c) of title 39, as enacted by subsection 1010(e) of the Act, which provides for opening of an item of a class of mail otherwise sealed against inspection, in a manner consistent, to the maximum extent permissible, with the need to conduct searches in exigent circumstances, such as to protect human life and safety against hazardous materials, and the need for physical searches specifically authorized by law for foreign intelligence collection.

Bush doesn't much like getting warrants, does he? If there's enough intelligence to suggest the need for a search, there should be enough intelligence to get a warrant. That's all the Constituion asks.

Posted by lesjones | TrackBack

Comments

If there's enough intelligence to suggest the need for a search, there should be enough intelligence to get a warrant. That's all the Constitu[t]ion asks.

That depends on what the meaning of "enough" is. The constitutional standards for searches and warrants are not the same, as the former requires only reasonableness, the latter, probable cause. Personally, I think the government should be able to search mail that has a 49% probability of causing death or serious injury, but that's just me.

Posted by: Xrlq at January 05, 2007

"That depends on what the meaning of "enough" is. The constitutional standards for searches and warrants are not the same, as the former requires only reasonableness,"

That's the whole point of getting a search warrant - so that you can demonstrate to the citizenry that this search is reasonable. ..i.e. if we all agree that the standard is 49% probability of causing serious trouble - issuing a search warrant means that you've gone to the trouble of saying "yes - a REASONABLE person would conclude that there was this 49% chance" otherwise it's just too open to abuse of power.

And I suspect that there's a higher than a 49% chance of abuse of power - opening mail, listening to phone calls, detention and questioning for long periods without charge and will lead to serious trouble.

Posted by: Vol Abroad at January 06, 2007