Judge states that Bush is not the King!

[LuckyLib]

<snip> District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor has ripped a yawning hole in the Bush administration's claims that it can use wrrantless electronic surveillance on communications between people in the United States and people abroad who have a possible connection to Al-Qaida. This is a big victory for American civil liberties, at least temporarily.

<snip> . . . the president is himself a creature of the Constitution. He is not a king, so he cannot assert the authority to stand outside the Constitution and essentially declare that his power trumps it. Taylor's judgments may not prevail, but they make good reading and good sense.


<snip> This decision gets the ball rolling.

But best of all,
<snip>
In language that has broad significance, Taylor dispatched brilliantly the Bush administration argument that it has the constitutional power to do almost anything it wants under Article II, which designates the president commander in chief. That article, Taylor said, makes the president commander of only the armed forces. The American people are not part of the military, and the rights they enjoy under the Constitution are beyond the president's reach.

Edited to add link: http://www.startribune.com/561/story/621110.html