Jonathan Turley talks about the Padilla decision

In an interview, constitutional attorney Jonathan Turley discusses the implications of the court's decision to release defendant Jose Padilla.

TURLEY: [M]any of us have believed since Padilla was first arrested that the president's argument was so extreme that it was untenable.

I mean, what the president was arguing was that he could unilaterally designate a citizen an enemy combatant, and strip him of all his constitutional rights and access to courts and counsel.

If he prevailed on that argument today in the Second Circuit, the entire Constitution would be a discretionary document, a subject of his arbitrary whim as to whether this citizen is going to get full rights and that citizen is not.

And so we've had over the last few months a very sort of Caesar- like role of the president. He sends Zacarias Moussaoui into a federal court, even though he's a French citizen, sends Padilla into a Navy brig and strips him of all his rights. And the only difference between these two is the inclination of the president.

And that is untenable for our system of law. No one is that powerful in our system.   article

Although they try to be. And have been getting way too close for comfort.

I think I like Jonathan Turley. He even represented workers at Area 51 in a lawsuit. You may think it was frivolous, but some time check into the problems whistleblowers have there (workers can get up to 10 years in prison for talking about the place - pretty interesting, considering the place doesn't officially exist). And if you live in Nevada, you might consider the health implications. The government can't be held accountable for the toxic waste that comes out of that place, because, officially, it doesn't exist. And everybody else, read this article. Turley's clients didn't want money - they wanted government accountability, which we all know is a pipe dream. This case actually had presidential input - the court said it would have to have presidential approval to view records, and the president didn't give it. "Clinton is the first president in American history to cover a crime by making a national security declaration to block a trial" - sorry, George, he's ahead of you there, too. Turley says that the burning of toxic materials had nothing to do with national security. I might add that it's possible they do. It's possible Turley wasn't "in the know" as to just what materials were being burned. But that gets into the UFO cover-up stuff, and I'm not going there here.

I see articles on Turley's opinions here and there. He seems to be a reasoninig and thoughtful man. He also happens to be the attorney for Dr. Butler, so I got to see him on the 60 Minutes program, where he appeared to be very reserved and somewhat conservative - hardly the type I would have expected to be embroiled in a lawsuit over a non-existent space base. He apparently had not wanted to get involved in the Butler case, which is full of espionage and national security matters as well, until he was pressed by Dr. Butler's colleagues and decided to check into the matter.

As a purely personal interest, Mr. Turley looked a whole lot like the Turley clan of which I am a member. (Dad ca. 1958 - go ahead and look, he's with his race car - my how times have changed.) Maybe we share a gene or two, as well as a political stance. Maybe I'll check into his genealogy some day. Probably not.

Hey to all you Turleys out there.

Grandpa was a judge, but some of his relatives were horse thieves. (Well, that's what he told me.)

Sorry. Just ramblin', Rose.

Back to Padilla...

TURLEY: ...And there is a certain morning after aspect of this where we're looking at how much we've lost since September 11. But we lost most of these things by our own hand.

...Benjamin Franklin told a woman outside of the convention when she came up and said, ... "What have you made and created?" ...Benjamin Franklin said, "It's a republic, madam, if you can keep it."

And that is the most chilling thing I've ever heard, because it reflects the fact that whatever legacy we have, it can die by our own hand. It can die by inaction. And today's decision really defended that legacy.

... [I]f you look at how people are portraying this decision...[n]obody is expressing any shock that what the court was saying is that the president had no authority to take an American citizen, strip him of his rights and throw him in a Navy brig for months.

You can't get more fundamental in terms of a denial of rights, in terms of usurpation of authority than the Padilla case. But people are not outraged, even though that is precisely the type of abuse that animated, motivated the framers.

Here's a good, and recent, article by Turley. Going for the gold in a competition of the corrupt. Check it out.

Tom Welch and Dave Johnson, the former president and senior vice president of the Salt Lake Olympic bid and organizing committee...had been charged with 15 counts of bribery and fraud for allegedly buying off Olympic officials to make Salt Lake City the site of the 2002 Winter Olympics.

However, in a never-before-seen maneuver, they managed to persuade a federal judge to dismiss their case not by denying making huge payments of cash or gifts but by arguing that such conduct was entirely appropriate in the thoroughly corrupt world of the International Olympic Committee.

Don't laugh. It's the new America.

In perhaps the ultimate sign of our times, the same sort of claim is being attempted by defendants in the New York trial involving Tyco Corp. In the face of allegations of greed and self-dealing, former corporate officials have sought to be judged according to the standards of their morally delinquent peers. In other words, in a community of the corrupt, there can be no such thing as a dishonest man.

...Viewed in isolation, the evidence appears to offer little room for a defense. Yet when it comes to Olympic ambitions, context is everything. The defense essentially asked whether it is possible to commit a conspiracy when everyone knows about it, or in Zen-like phraseology, if a conspiracy occurs in Salt Lake and everyone can see it, does a conspiracy exist? According to the judge, it does not.

Welch and Johnson won their case.

And think about the current administration's operations in terms of Turley's Zen comment.

....oh, do what you want....you will anyway.