From Massachusetts with Love

[MelissaB]

Dear Melissa,

Last week, Samuel Alito became a Supreme Court Justice, adding a strong believer in overreaching executive power to the Nation's highest court. Instead of using the opportunity to unite Americans behind a Justice who would reflect the mainstream values of Americans, President Bush caved in to the extreme right-wing of his party and gave them the kind of nominee they wanted -- after they'd flexed their right-wing muscle by forcing Harriet Miers to withdraw her nomination.

But we have another outrage to deal with. Under the cloak of national security, President Bush has ordered a secret surveillance program that spies on American citizens without any judicial oversight. That's against a specific law that Congress passed. I know, because I was one of its principal authors in 1978. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act established a special court to consider requests for such surveillance in national security cases.

The President should have worked with Congress to amend the law, not ignore it. I believe that his decision to go around the law actually weakens our national security instead of strengthening it. By creating such legal uncertainty, it opens the door for lawsuits against front line workers in our government who are trying to protect us. It even opens up lawsuits against phone companies that allow wiretaps.

These sensitive national security issues should not be thrashed out in open court. We know from our history that our nation is strongest when we come together for the sake of our national security. Thirty years ago, we had a Republican President and a Republican Attorney General who understood this. They worked with Congress to develop laws to respond to the grave threat of nuclear attack from the Soviet Union. They understood to successfully protect our security the rule of law must be clear.

President Bush's own words in 2004 show that he understood the purpose of the law. As he said, "any time that you hear the United States talking about a wiretap, it requires a court order ... Nothing has changed -- when we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so."

Yet the Administration did just the opposite in ordering secret surveillance. He ignored the law, ordered the surveillance, and now is trying to justify it by claiming he had "inherent" power as commander-in-chief to do it.

Sandra Day O'Connor disagreed. She said "a state of war is not a blank check for the President when it comes to the rights of the nation's citizens." No wonder the right wing wanted to replace her with a Justice like Samuel Alito.

As this latest fight goes on in Congress, we will have to do our best to uphold the basic principle that no President can put himself above the law and when he tries to do so he puts the nation at risk. And in the weeks and months ahead, we must remain committed to fighting any and all abuses of Presidential power that threaten our liberties and our security.

Thank you again for your continuing support.

Sincerely,



Senator Edward M. Kennedy

Bolding mine :)