Writ of Douchebagery

So everyone has probably heard about the torture memos that the some lawyers in the Justice Department and Defense Department wrote. I think the Wall Street Journal first reported on the leak of the memos. Basically they say that the President and American soldiers that torture people can't be held accountable by international law. This is of course, total bullshit.

Anyway, a couple days ago, Attorney General John Ashcroft visited capitol hill and met with the Senate Judiciary Committee. Basically he gave the Democrats on the committee the big F-U and refused to hand over the the Justice Department memo. The Daily Show had a pretty good segment on this, and you can catch most of it online[realplayer video].

Why am I writing about this when most of the left-leaning blogosphere has covered it pretty well? While I am very disturbed by the torture that US soldiers have committed, as well as the existence of memos condoning and allowing for that torture, I think that John Ashcroft's refusal to give a legal rational for not turning over the memo represents a constitutional crisis and it isn't being reported as such by the media. Basically, the Attorney General has committed contempt of Congress, and there is nothing that can be done about it.

In order for the AG to be tried for contempt, the judiciary committee would first have to agree to pass the matter on to the full Senate. Then the senate would have to decide to pass the matter on to a federal attorney (who of course works for Ashcroft). Then the federal attorney would have to decide to pass it on to a grand jury.

Posted by Noah Brimhall at June 14, 2004 04:24 PM