Junk Law Will Damage Our Legal System

[SoDesuKa]

Remember when junk securities were new? They were just the neatest thing - everybody made money until their essential worthlessness became apparent. Of course by then the damage was so extensive that it was a full-scale calamity.

Junk law will do the same thing to our legal system. Essentially worthless legal concepts are being packaged and sold as if they represented valid jurisprudence. Take enemy combatant as an example of a junk concept. The point of this neologism is clear - it's an end run around the Constitution to allow things that are wildly impermissible. An enemy combatant is neither a criminal nor a soldier, and hasn't the rights of either. Where did we get "enemy combatants" from? Junk peddlers like John Yoo and Michael Mukasey.

When is an assassination not an assassination? When it's authorized by junk law such as the AUMF. There's nothing in it of legal value, and we'll eventually have to clean up the mess it's leaving behind. Is torture legal? Of course not. Calling it "enhanced interrogation techniques" is the equivalent to bundling worthless housing securities. Junk.

Respect for due process has a history going back to the Magna Carta. Substituting junk law for centuries of legal tradition reflects contempt for the law itself. It's not surprising that a bumpkin like George Bush would destroy the work of generations - he doesn't know any better. But it's dismaying that Barack Obama - a former law professor - seems to acquiesce in it.

[dkf]

1. Once the Supreme Court ruled as they did on Bush V Gore I realized it was a sham.

[Rabblevox]

2. I'll go back even further, to Iran/Contra and the "October Surprise". n/t

[Demeter]

3. The best way to subvert the rule of law

is to make ridiculous rules and laws.