Reply #80: Objection! Author makes wild leap of illogic.

[ieoeja]

From the story:

"The Government's position remains that this case should be stayed," the Obama administration wrote (.pdf) in a filing that for the first time made clear the new president was on board with the Bush administration's reasoning in this case.


From the quoted pdf:

On January 19, 2009, the Government filed a motion for a stay pending appeal and for certification of the Court's Order pursuant to ...



On January 23rd the Government lawyers added a line replacing Bush with Obama as the defendant in the lawsuit. This would be Government lawyers from the Department of Justice headed up by the Attorney General. And Obama's nomination for AG, Eric Holder, has not yet been confirmed.

1. The DoJ is still being run by the man Bush left in charge.
2. The "Obama administration" did not write the quoted line. It was written at least one day before Obama took office.
3. The motion was filed the day before Obama took office.


That being said there is a very good chance the Obama administration will continue the appeal. Because the Top Secret memo in question may very well have information we do not want exposed in open court: something like, "and B. Hussein, our spy in the Saudi government, was able to confirm many of the facts obtained by the wiretap."