The Daily MuckA federal judge struck down the FBI’s authority to issue national security letters in lieu of court-approved warrants when seeking information from telecommunications firms. Not content merely with a decision that peels back some of the farthest reaches of the Patriot Act, the residing judge also bashed Congress for passing a law that had potential to become, “the legislative equivalent of breaking and entering, with an ominous free pass to the hijacking of constitutional values.” (Associated Press)
One more, and it’s a whole frame. A ninth Justice Department official has resigned. Peter Keisler ran the administration’s fight over detainee rights at Guantanamo. He plans to spend some time with the family, but Bush is already pursuing his nomination to the D.C. Court of Appeals. (Associated Press)
The terrorist watch list, which determines who can and cannot flight in this country, is riddled with inconsistent entries and has a high error rate in identifying security threats. It seems not being able to trust the accuracy of the list might undermine the value of having a monitoring list in the first place; the Justice Department’s Inspector General is beginning to agree. (Washington Post)
Get ready for a House-on-Senate battle royale over earmarks. That’s because the House has managed to cut the list of earmarks in half in the latest draft of appropriations bill. But the Senate, who helped pass the earmark reform bill this year, thinks it has done its good deed for the year; their numbers of earmarks hasn’t changed substantially from last year. (The Hill)
Iraq’s head of the Public Integrity Commission has submitted his resignation for reasons of political pressure. Judge Radhi Hamza al-Radhi, who is tasked with outing government corruption, says his efforts have been frustrated by the Maliki government that has sought to limit the scope of his inquiries. He is leaving because, “I cannot just sit in my place and see corruption eating the Iraqi state.” (NY Times)
