General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: In case you missed it..Matt Taibbi leaves Rolling Stone for new digs. [View all]questionseverything
(9,646 posts)firstlook has done great reporting so far
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In October 2012, United States Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. was in a tight spot.
Seeking dismissal of a legal challenge against an NSA warrantless electronic surveillance program, the Department of Justice had taken the position that the rabble-rousers represented by the ACLU had no standing to sue because they couldnt prove they had been subjected to surveillance. But who, if anyone, could prove they were harmed by a program cloaked in secrecy?
Verrilli was ready with an answer: those criminals who had been caught by the program. In both written and oral arguments, the solicitor general assured the Supreme Court that the DOJ was bound by law to notify defendants when the program was used against them, stating that if the government planned to use evidence derived from the surveillance in court, it must provide advance notice to the tribunal and the person. It was an effective argument and one the Court ultimately found persuasive.
It just wasnt true. While the DOJ had utilized warrantless electronic surveillance to identify suspects for years, no criminal defendant had received such notice. Ever. Once this discrepancy was exposed, the DOJ reversed course and began providing notice to defendants in late 2013.
Yet the critical question of how and why the Obama administration misled our highest court remains unresolved.
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it begs the question, did the solicitor general even know he was " misrepresenting" things to the supreme court?
I do not understand those who constantly defend current admin not wanting to get to the bottom of this as it is current admin this "shadow" force is betraying unless they are afraid current admin actually wants this stuff going on
as disappointed as I have been over some policies, appointments of current admin I still can not bring myself to believe he would send top lawyer to sc to lie and we know bush infested the justice department with regency grads in civil service jobs so it is not beyond reason to think their are many there working against potus
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/02/26/doj-still-ducking-scrutiny/
long winded k&r to bump thread