It's no wonder Harriet Miers, the White House legal counsel who resigned today, was rejected by both Democrats and Republicans after President Bush tried to nominate her for the Supreme Court. Aside from being a bumpkin lawyer mostly handling cases of DUI (for which Mr. Bush kept her constantly employed), she's the same lawyer who has done nothing to stop the president from doing something very illegal right in front of everyone, including TV cameras.

President Bush has refined a practice virtually unknown to other presidents, except Ronald Reagan, who shouldn't count because he was an idiot and a war criminal. It's something known as a signing statement, and only someone with the mind of a 5-year-old could think is legal. When the president signs a bill into law, he will attach a statement which basically says "I'm not going to enforce this." It has no legal basis, as it's a contradiction of what the signature on the bill implies. If the president doesn't support a bill, he shouldn't sign it.

The most recent use of the signing statement came with a postal reform bill. The bill extends a law prohibiting the government from opening a person's mail without a warrant. In a signing statement attached to the bill, President Bush proclaimed that the President had the authority to allow the opening of private mail without a warrant. No such exception was included in the bill. There could be no more blatant violation of the Constitution. The president is making exceptions and complete changes to laws without any oversight from Congress. Does our system of checks and balances not apply to George W. Bush?


ABC News: Bush: Government Can Open Your Mail

Police officers are allowed to make alcohol inspections of bars and other establishments that serve alcohol, but a pool hall in Manassas Park is charging that police are using this loophole to raid businesses and search for evidence unrelated to an alcohol inspection.

Searching a private business would usually require a search warrant obtained from a judge or grand jury. In places like Manassas Park and Buffalo, New York, police are starting programs that allow them to perform warrantless searches by making it appear that they are for a different purpose. In Buffalo, Operation Clean Sweep was created to send officials to bad neighborhoods on good will missions, including handing out smoke alarms and checking for building and fire code violations. People started to question the operation when it led to a high number of drug charges against residents who had not been investigated prior to the operation.

Let's get back to the Manassas Park case. The bar owner who had his establishment raided filed a civil rights suit against the city, claiming the 70+ police officers in ski masks who entered his bar while pumping shot guns were not there for a routine alcohol inspection. His bar was torn apart, and his customers were handcuffed. A federal circuit court ruled that there was no 4th Amendment violation and dismissed the suit. Good thing we cleared the courts of all those activist judges.
Reason Magazine - Hit & Run > Regulating Around the Fourth Amendment