You Can't Sue City Hall

John Ashcroft, the predecessor of Alberto Gonzales and
former title holder of “Craziest Attorney General since John Mitchell” has an op-ed
piece in today’s NY Times. In it he argues that the telecommunication
companies who provided access for the Bush administration’s illegal wiretaps
should be held immune from lawsuits.

As he says, “Whatever one feels about the underlying
intelligence activities or the legal basis on which they were initially
established, it would be unfair and contrary to the interests of the United
States to allow litigation that tries to hold private telecommunications
companies liable for them.”

I can see his point. Because if the administration can
blithely get away with breaking the law, why shouldn’t the companies who helped
the do it get away with it too? It wouldn’t be fair to stick them with the
blame just because they didn’t listen to their mother when she said, “Well, just
because George or Dick or John or Alberto jumps off the bridge, that doesn’t
mean you have to jump off the bridge, too.”

It’s easy to see why Ashcroft is advocating the immunity.
After all, since leaving the Attorney General’s office, he’s made his living as
a consultant—and op-ed writer—for, you guessed it, telecom companies.

But, whatever his motives, I’m going to have to agree with
him on this one, although not for the reasons he cites. No, revealing
procedures of our intelligence community during the discovery process is not
the most dangerous possible outcome of these lawsuits. (I mean, c’mon, do you
think the guys who outed Valerie Plame really give a damn about that?) Not granting immunity from lawsuits to the
telecoms is far more dangerous than letting the lawsuits proceed for the reason
that this suit would inevitably end up in the Supreme Court.

Imagine what would happen there. If you can’t, let me help
you. What if the Court decided that it’s alright for people to break black-letter
law if the president says so? Because if it came to that, that’s the only logical way to let the
telecoms off the legal hook.

And if we had the highest court deciding that it’s okay to
break the law, pretty soon we’re gonna be hearing things like “Freedom is
Slavery” or “War is Peace” or “Ignorance is Strength.”

It’s not that far fetched. After all, Big Brother is already
watching.