This post originally appeared on the now defunct blog, Team Sakib.
In the First Amendment the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The Government's power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the Government. The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people...
In the First Amendment the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The Government's power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the Government. The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people...
The word "security"is a broad, vague generality whose contours should not be invoked to abrogate the fundamental law embodied in the First Amendment. the guarding of military and diplomatic secrets at the expense of informed representative government provides no real secuirity for our Republic.
~Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, New York Times Co. v. United States; United States v. Washington Post Co., 1971
Hugo Black was refering to a Nixon administration case known as the Pentagon Papers. The NY Times had secured a top secret Pentagon report from 1967 detailing several US moves in Vietnam that were less than desireable for the general public to see. So Nixon had the feds sue the Times and the Post to try and keep them from publishing the papers. Nixon lost. Bastards don't learn, do they.
Almost 25 years later and the feds still haven't learned:
"Yesterday the existence of this secret program was revealed in media reports, after being improperly provided to news organizations. As a result, our enemies have learned information they should not have, and the unauthorized disclosure of this effort damages our national security and puts our citizens at risk."~Dubya
"The President's shocking admission that he authorized the National Security Agency to spy on American citizens, without going to a court and in violation of the Constitution and laws passed by Congress, further demonstrates the urgent need for these protections. The President believes that he has the power to override the laws that Congress has passed. This is not how our democratic system of government works. The President does not get to pick and choose which laws he wants to follow. He is a president, not a king."~Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin)
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Democratic_senator_says_Bush_violated_law_1217.html
Good editorial piece out of Houston of all places:
No comments:
Post a Comment