It's called "the rule of law". It's a concept that came as a reaction against a ruler make decisions based on his own opinion of what is right and wrong.
Yes, there is a place for a discussion of ethics outside of the current legal framework, and if the Constitution is found to be lacking in that area, then it should be amended. Until that happens, our government is legally bound to abide by the Constitution as it is written, and to judge whether or not that is happening, the document must be interpreted. One important aspect to interpretation of a document is to understand the circumstances under which it was written. To do that with a 200+ year old document requires a little knowledge of history.
The framers of the Constitution did not achieve perfection, but at least the idea of the "rule of law" does give us a relatively consistent and stable society in which to live. The disadvantage is that written law is static and cannot quickly adjust to changing circumstances. Ideally, we would have an enlightened leader who knew the right thing to do in every circumstance, and would govern with perfect justice. If we could be assured of that kind of government, we wouldn't need to worry about interpreting documents.
What're we in court here? Does pg come in at the end and bring up the highest-voted comments at his next illuminati meeting? The original article lists lots of pretty bad things. The fifth amendment is relevant to the extent that it should be improved to prevent those bad things. I don't think the word of the law is the biggest problem here.
So I don't have a problem with drone strikes. I think they're cheaper and safer than the only practical alternative, which is sending special forces abroad. I also don't think non-Americans outside American soil have rights under our Constitution, because they're not members of our society. I also don't have a problem with monitoring of internet communications so long as its done by computers with security protocols to prevent misuse of the information, and robust court supervision of the use of the resulting evidence. I think my views are actually representative of typical Americans. So where does that leave us? You think those things on that list are "bad things" and I think they're "better than the alternatives."
This is why discussions turn legalistic, because people dissagree about what's good and what's bad, so they instead fight over what is legal and what is illegal.
Yes, it is amazing how quickly some Americans shift from a discussion on whether it is justified to recognise the rights of non Americans to whether it is justified to not murder them.
> I also don't have a problem with monitoring of internet communications so long as its done by computers with security protocols to prevent misuse of the information, and robust court supervision of the use of the resulting evidence.
"Security protocols" to prevent misuse, huh? Why would you think they'd be concerned with something like that?
What do you think is the idea behind NSA's massive spy center in Utah? "Hey guys, let's capture all traffic on the Internet, and then make damn sure we'll never do anything with it that might compromise someone's privacy, ever!"
> robust court supervision of the use of the resulting evidence
As robust as the supervision on mortgages in the past few years, perhaps?
Case in point: With all those hundreds of thousands of mortgages the bank bought, it simply stopped filing basic paperwork – even the stuff required by law, like keeping chains of title. A blizzard of subsequent lawsuits from pissed-off localities reveals that the bank used this systematic scam to avoid paying local fees. Last year, a single county – Dallas County in Texas – sued Bank of America for ducking fees since 1997. "Our research shows it could be more than $100 million," Craig Watkins, the county's district attorney, told reporters. Think of that next time your county leaves a road unpaved, or is forced to raise property taxes to keep the schools open.
But the lack of paperwork also presented a problem for the bank: When it needed to foreclose on someone, it had no evidence to take to court. So Bank of America unleashed a practice called robo-signing, which essentially involved drawing up fake documents for court procedures. Two years ago, a Bank of America robo-signer named Renee Hertzler gave a deposition in which she admitted not only to creating as many as 8,000 legal affidavits a month, but also to signing documents with a fake title.
No, it's not called the rule of law. It's called reading your personal ideology into a 300-year old constitution because you're too cowardly to actually come out and pass laws or - Heaven forbid O noble Americans! - amend the Constitution to line up with modern times.
Yes, there is a place for a discussion of ethics outside of the current legal framework, and if the Constitution is found to be lacking in that area, then it should be amended. Until that happens, our government is legally bound to abide by the Constitution as it is written, and to judge whether or not that is happening, the document must be interpreted. One important aspect to interpretation of a document is to understand the circumstances under which it was written. To do that with a 200+ year old document requires a little knowledge of history.
The framers of the Constitution did not achieve perfection, but at least the idea of the "rule of law" does give us a relatively consistent and stable society in which to live. The disadvantage is that written law is static and cannot quickly adjust to changing circumstances. Ideally, we would have an enlightened leader who knew the right thing to do in every circumstance, and would govern with perfect justice. If we could be assured of that kind of government, we wouldn't need to worry about interpreting documents.