The Feld-Blog

When was the last time Bush read the Constitution? The Presidential oath is the one and only oath for public office that is written in the US Constitution. It is also the shortest and most succinct of any oaths for public office. You'd think, then, that even Bush could actually remember to uphold it. Instead, he has continued on his path of destruction. Having seen that no one can stop him from wiretapping whomever he wants (another instance of illegal search and seizure), his administration is now trying to subpoena Google for its search results without just cause for suspecting them of anything.

This action is even more insidious when you peel back further layers. Not only does the government not have a warrant against Google, Google is not even a party to the lawsuit in question. What's more, the government doesn't have just cause to suspect anyone of any related violations.

Ok, so what is this really about? Well first of all the government passed a law to attempt to prevent children from seeing pornography on the internet. However, in a case called Ashcroft vs. ACLU The Supreme Court told the Bush administration it wasn't allowed to enforce this law. Now, not only is the government looking for ways to enforce the law, they are subpoenaing Google to release documents, not because they have reasonable cause to suspect anyone of infringing the invalid law, but because they are trying to build a case to prove that.

So lets recap: Bush passed a law that the already incredibly conservative Supreme Court has told him is unconstitutional. Now he is infringing on the constitution again - this time in the form of illegal search and seizure - in an attempt to build a case in support of a law we already know is unconstitutional. What is wrong with this picture?