digby: Privatizing The Constitution

[babylonsister]

Privatizing The Constitution

by digby

According to this site, a General Counsel of a large communications corporation makes around $300,000 a year, before bonuses, stock options and the rest. One assumes that he or she also has many Ivy league trained attorneys on staff and retains at least one outside law firm, probably more, which bills the company at top rates. All of these people are undoubtedly among the highest quality corporate lawyers in the world.

And yet the Bush administration wants the people of this country to grant their employers immunity from lawsuits brought by ordinary Americans because their lawyers took the word of the Bush administration that they weren't breaking the law by eavesdropping on their customers without a warrant. We are supposed to believe that the best lawyers in the world -- who specialize in the field of communications -- didn't know nothin' bout no fourth amendment.

What a precedent this sets. The government can "privatize" spying on citizens --- or any other unconstitutional activity --- and promise the corporate contributors who get the contracts that they will be granted retroactive immunity for the laws they've broken. If nobody can sue them in court, then there is no avenue to legally pursue the case and determine its constitutionality. (Privatizing the CIA with a deal like this would certainly solve those messy issues about torture. If I were Blackwater, I'd be kicking some ass right now to get their deals in writing.)

Those corporations knew exactly what they were doing. Not one of the lawyers they employed could have possibly believed that it was ok to take the government's "word" for it that they weren't breaking the law. In fact, I think it's highly, highly unlikely they ever would have done it if they hadn't been promised in advance that they would never be held liable for it.

more...

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/10/privatizing-constitution-by-digby.html

[KoKo]

1. Digby takes the conversation to a broader level. It's 'bout time someone did!

[nashville_brook]

2. kickity kick

[Cha]

3. It's all CorporateWhores All The Time..

They're not stopping until they own the world or the Law Of Unintended Consequences gets 'em where it hurts hard.

Digby's the best at deciphering bushits and cutting to bone.

[Bolo Boffin]

4. As Atrios puts it...

This has been another edition of What Digby Said.