Will Grigg's Liberty Minute

September 10, 2007

In January 2004, Jack Goldsmith was head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, where he was responsible to advise the president regarding the constitutional and statutory limits on his power. Although he supported the administration's counter-terrorism policy, Goldsmith became concerned about its open disdain for Congress, which at the time was under Republican control.

Goldsmith was particularly worried about the administration's use of warrantless wiretaps without authorization from a special judicial panel called the FISA Court. That court has rarely turned down requests for surveillance warrants, and can issue them after the fact. Goldsmith discussed his concerns with David Addington, chief counsel to Vice President Cheney. Addington, the most powerful legal adviser in the administration replied: ?We're one bomb away from getting rid of that obnoxious court.?

As an attorney, Addington knows how to parse his words carefully. Did he really mean to say, in effect, that the administration was collaborating with terrorists to alter the structure of the federal government?

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.