The FBI Claims a Constitutional Right to Lie to the Courts

The FBI has claimed a right to lie to courts, not just withhold state secrets. This is amazingly brazen. It's also incredibly stupid, but I'll get to that in a second. The court's response:

The Government’s in camera submission raises a very disturbing issue. The Government previously provided false and misleading information to the Court. The Government represented to the Court in pleadings, declarations, and briefs that it had searched its databases and found only a limited number of documents responsive to Plaintiffs’ FOIA request and that a significant amount of information within those documents was outside the scope of Plaintiffs’ FOIA request. The Government’s representations were then, and remain today, blatantly false. As the Government’s in camera submission makes clear, the Government located a significant number of documents that were responsive to Plaintiffs’ FOIA request. Virtually all of the information within those documents is inside the scope of Plaintiffs’ FOIA request. The Government asserts that it had to mislead the Court regarding the Government’s response to Plaintiffs’ FOIA request to avoid compromising national security. The Government’s argument is untenable. The Government cannot, under any circumstance, affirmatively mislead the Court.

The United States Constitution entrusts the Judiciary with the power to determine compliance with the law. It is impossible for the Court to determine compliance with the law and to protect the public from Government misconduct if the Government misleads the Court. The Court simply cannot perform its constitutional function if the Government does not tell the truth....

Holder Continues the Obama Administration's War on Law

It has been clear from the beginning of the Obama Administration that this government simply does not agree that we are a nation of laws, not men (you know our founding principle?). From the willingness to give different trials based on likelihood of conviction to the willingness to assassinate our own citizens, it has become constantly clear that the Administration believes that in the name of combating terror, laws do not matter. Additionally, the whole "look forward, not back" for political elites, means that generally, they are exempt from the rule of law, meaning that we are, either by calling something terror-related, or by immunizing elites, a nation under the rule of not law, but men. (That's what I mean when I say that if Obama says so, we can operate essentially as a temporary monarchy.)

Obama Puts a Hit Out on a US Citizen He Says is a Terrorist

(Updated below)

I'm exhausted. Too exhausted to muster up my typical righteous anger about this issue, so I'll just send you along to Glenn Greenwald, who has plenty.

Not really sure there's a money quote, so just read the thing, but here's a sample: