Sweeping Away the Bush Detritus

There are still loose ends from the Bush years. John Yoo causes quite a stir as a "law" professor at UC Berkeley. It is a little hard to believe that this guy who twisted legal "interpretation" in unbelievable ways is allowed to teach prospective lawyers.

Here'a bit from an article about Yoo in the LA Times:

Recently, however, the Obama administration made public a memo dated Oct. 23, 2001, signed by Yoo and another former Justice Department official, Robert Delahunty. It concluded that "the Fourth Amendment does not apply to domestic military operations designed to deter and prevent further terrorist attacks."

This is what the 4th Amendment says: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

Under the Yoo-Delahunty memo, the military would be unconstrained by the amendment's prohibitions. It could search anyone's home, wiretap anyone's phone, or arrest and hold any citizen, all without a warrant, and based on the flimsiest suspicion. Could the military have abused this power? Well, there is a lot of bad intelligence floating around in the bowels of our government, and sometimes the military acts on it. Remember Iraq and its weapons of mass destruction?