Ashcroft, Comey, Goldsmith, and Baker: “All” Is the “Best” Reading of “Relevant”

/5 Comments/in /by

Four MusketeersTowards the end of the Memorandum of Law in support of the Internet dragnet — which was signed by those guys ———-> — DOJ makes a claim that its reading of “relevant” to mean “almost all” was the best possible reading.

Here, by contrast, reading the term “relevant” to permit the collection of this critical information during wartime is a construction rooted in the text that requires no stretching of the ordinary meaning of the terms of the statute at all. In fact, for all the reasons outlined above, interpreting section 402 to authorize the collection the Government has requested in the best reading of the plain terms of the Act.

This is why you should not have secret courts.

I get making an aggressive push to authorize dragnet surveillance.

I get mining old and foreign dictionaries to come up with a definition that suits your needs.

But after you’ve made your best ditch effort to stretch the meaning of words, secretly, beyond all recognition, don’t then, secretly, pat yourself on the back pretending that wasn’t the game you just pulled.

But hey. Who’s the chump? After all, we now know that Misters Ashcroft, Comey, Goldsmith, and Baker pulled this off.

Yet no one is making any effort to put the English language back on some kind of sane footing. Nothing in any of the “reform” efforts before Congress attempts to put sanity back into the word “relevant.”

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5 replies
  1. bloopie2 says:

    Jesus. What arrogance.

    My question is in light of the fact that no one is making an effort to do up a “good” bill. Is there a possibility that NO bill will pass Congress? And if so, would that be a better scenario? After all, then no one could say, “Congress stuided this and determined this was good.”

  2. MBR says:

    This old guy here (who suspects his political leanings are far away from yours) says what you’ve written could not be more devoid of any red or blue tint — both the simple dissection that you’ve done and the profound point about secret courts.

    He’ll spend the day wondering in sadness why the essence of what you’ve put down is not being shouted from the rooftops.

  3. earlofhuntingdon says:

    Through the Looking Glass, and What Ashcroft, Comey, Baker and Goldsmith Found There:

    ‘The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’ ‘The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.’

    Soon, they’ll be hunting the Snark.

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