Jan. 4, 2006
Bush: Mail Subject To Warrantless Searches
Presidential Signing Statement Claims Feds Can Open Mail In Certain Circumstances
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Photo
President Bush signed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2006. (White House Photo)
The law as passed by the House and Senate requires government agents to get warrants to open first-class letters.
But the presidential statement, signed on December 20, added that sealed mail can be searched in "exigent circumstances, such as to protect human life and safety against hazardous materials, and the need for physical searches specifically authorized by law for foreign intelligence."
The White House said the president is not claiming any new authority and that the statement does not change the scope of current law.
Spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore told CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller, "The signing statement merely recognizes a legal proposition that is totally uncontroversial: that in certain circumstances – such as with the proverbial 'ticking bomb' – the Constitution does not require warrants for reasonable searches."
But CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen questioned why the president felt it necessary to attach the language to the bill if nothing has changed.
"I don't think the White House would have included this language into a signing statement unless the feds were either already searching mail without a warrant or planning to do so," Cohen said. "And if the legal right to do so were as clear as the White House now says it's hard to believe that there was a need to remind everyone of the fact in a bill about the postal service."
"The signing statement raises serious questions whether he is authorizing opening of mail contrary to the Constitution and to laws enacted by Congress," said Ann Beeson, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union. "What is the purpose of the signing statement if it isn't that?"
She said the group is planning to file request for information on how this exception will be used and also asking whether it has already been used to open mail.
Postal Vice President Tom Day said Thursday: "As has been the long-standing practice, first class mail is protected from unreasonable search and seizure when in postal custody. Nothing in the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act changes this protection. The president is not exerting any new authority."
However, Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., criticized Bush's action.
"Every American wants foolproof protection against terrorism. But history has shown it can and should be done within the confines of the Constitution. This last-minute, irregular and unauthorized reinterpretation of a duly passed law is the exact type of maneuver that voters so resoundingly rejected in November," Schumer said.
The White House first came under scrutiny for its domestic surveillance policies in December 2005 when the New York Times revealed a National Security Agency program which eavesdropped on phone calls without warrants to do so.
Mr. Bush claimed the NSA program is needed in the war on terrorism; opponents say it oversteps constitutional boundaries on free speech, privacy and executive powers.
In October, a federal appeals court allowed the domestic spying program to continue after a lower court had ordered it stopped.
President Bush has also come under fire from legal experts for creating or expanding presidential powers in bill signing statements. In July, an American Bar Association task force said that the president was violating the Constitution by doing so.
"If left unchecked, the president's practice does grave harm to the separation of powers doctrine, and the system of checks and balances that have sustained our democracy for more than two centuries," ABA president Michael Greco said at the time.
Bush has issued at least 750 signing statements during his presidency, more than all other presidents combined, according to the ABA.
Typically, presidents have used signing statements for such purposes as instructing executive agencies how to carry out new laws.
Bush's statements often reserve the right to revise, interpret or disregard laws on national security and constitutional grounds.
Both the warrantless searches and the president's use of signing statement's could be challenged by the newly convened Democratic congress.
"With Democrats now in control of Congress, don't be surprised if we see an investigation into these sorts of uses of signing statements and of the White House's legal authority to undertake searches like this without a warrant or other court order," Cohen said.
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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See all 164 CommentsAndrew Cohen
CBS News legal analyst
What can be done about this travesty??????
Posted by cantshutup at 01:52 PM : Jan 04, 2007
Protest! Scream! Bit*ch to our congressmen and Senators. March! Most people are sitting meekly back while Bush steals our freedom. What's next? declaring himself President For Life? Why not? He says he is above the law. This bast*ard needs to be stopped by Congress and he needs prison or worse!
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This administration has been taking over America one signing statement at a time. Our president is a despot.
Posted by kstrisha at 02:13 PM : Jan 04, 2007
He is indeed. With his abuse of signing statements he has assumed to himself the power of a king or dictator. He has forgotten that he is a president, an employee of ours, not our ruler. I agree with cantshuup, he is reaching the point where even the rest of his life in a violent prison might be too good for this SOB.
You know that the president has the power to suspend elections in the event of a national emergency, don't you? Any bets on a "second 9/11" taking place in the fall of '08?
The real axis of evil is the 3-wing US government, and the real terrorists are in Washington.
Right in that sentence is the "proof" that they are already doing this. Postal workers are fired or even criminally prosecuted for opening mail, so who decides who has the right to open mail without a warrent? Bush? The head of DHS? Postmaster general?
I suspect Bush is "testing the water" for Congressional oversight with this rather than covering himself for prior actions.
Posted by nyckate at 02:24 PM : Jan 04, 2007
The worst part is that we're letting them get away with it! people don't seem to understand what's happening. many of them actually think the president, as a function of office, has the same rights as a ruler or dictator. They don't know, or don't want to accept, that they have the responsibility to run this nation through our elected leaders. Not to just turn it over to our employees and then bit*ch when we don't like the outcome. These Basta*rds work for US, not the other way around and it's time we fired those who think otherwise. Starting with this as*shole Bush!
Bush is a figurehead held up for hatred and ridicule. He's used as a focus of attention so that instead of taking meaningful action to curb the excesses of this administration, people will waste their energy getting angry at him.
It's kind of like a reverse cult of personality. Make the dummy take the heat while the smart people get away with murder; in this case, literally.
We are in deep *** in this country, you know.
...the "DONALD" bursts into the oval office and shouts to g bush, "YOU'RE FIRED!" bush laughs and orders the donald shot...In that instant ROsie jumps through a window dealing a death kick to bush and trump...Mahmoud Ahmdinejad crawls out from under the desk where he had been giving bush head...Quick as a flash, Rosie grabs his scrawny little neck and snaps his head off...ROSIE is now the leader of the free world and baba wawa throws a party in her mansion!
What can we do??? We HAVE to do something!!! Any ideas on how to organize a protest, maybe? Petitions, will they work???
Posted by BushHater07 at 02:35 PM : Jan 04, 2007
There is a nationwide and international protest being organized right now to take place on March 17th (the anniversary of the war in Iraq), with protest marches taking place in several cities including Washington D.C.
Go to www.internationalanswer.org. They are the nationwide and international organizers and they have all the links you need to get involved.
We are in deep *** in this country, you know.
Posted by jimibear at 02:31 PM : Jan 04, 2007
You're right that there are no legal remedies if he does suspend the elections. That said our own Declaration Of Independence demands that the people revolt if the government stop acting in the public interests. If most Americans have the guts to do that is another thing altogether. Personally I think the bulk of them are sheep who'll meekly follow whoever says that they'll keep them safe. In other words, cowards.
President Bush has raped the Bill of Rights.
GORRAM IT!!!
When will it stop? What else is he going to take from us? So when and who voted on this shnitz?
GRRRRRR!!
American's - STILL asleep at the wheel.
The real question is; will the MAJORITY remain like silent lambs being led to their beheading?
Hey now! That's St. Patrick's Day! Dammit, it never clicked they started the war on that day.
And it's my girlfriend's birthday, too.
That's it, now it's personal. Personal, and Irish. You and me, Georgie, mano a mano, outside, now. LOL
wish somebody could contact ralf nader. He's always been presented as independant, not affiliated with none of both major parites.
We need him to go with us.
wish somebody could contact ralf nader. He's always been presented as independant, not affiliated with none of both major parites.
We need him to go with us."
If nothing else, he'd make sure we all wore our seatbelts.
Well, aside from the minor quibble that it was St Patrick's Day elsewhere for a thousand years or so before it was in the US, good points, NYCKate. Especially as march 17th this year is a Saturday, so the St. Patty's marches will take place on the day, not on the nearest weekend day as they usually do.
No one has been representing us for quite some time now. The final tragedy is the the electorate is now so complacent, ignorant and uninvolved that the goons in power don't even have to give lip service to democracy any longer.
And with regard to Iraq - since when was democracy enforced at gunpoint by a foreign power? It seems to me to be in direct opposition to that concept, actually.
As to Iraq - democracy can never be forced at gun point - I think Bush's cry for democracy is simply a 'good story' for the real reasons the neocons had for this invasion - they thought they could get in a US-friendly iraqi government, dole out the oil leases to US firms and control the oil of what could be the largest oil field in the world. They failed at that too.
that was a good one. LOL.
But first of all he'd make sure we have a safe mail delivery home without these peepers watching our skrewing into it.
Arrest and hold without charges
Torture
Obtain your library records to see what you're reading
Listen to your phone calls
Obtain lists of the web sites you visit
and now, Read your mail (and email)
Where are the true conservatives? This should be their issue too, instead of the continued blind support for the neocon dictator/world dominator (Cheney) and his lackey (Bush). This administration will be reviled in history for the damage they have done and are doing to democracy. The Atlantic Monthly estimates it will take decades to "unwind" the Bush presidency. Even Nixon's, which gave birth to government distrust in the modern era, was only estimated at 12 years.
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