unprintable irony from the DOJ

[trochee]

I got nothing to say about this. It would be funny if it weren't accompanied by the soundtrack of civil justice being flushed down the toilet.
(Memory Hole, via boingboing_net):

The Justice Department tipped its hand in its ongoing legal war with the ACLU over the Patriot Act. Because the matter is so sensitive, the Justice Dept is allowed to black out those passages in the ACLU's court filings that it feels should not be publicly released.

Ostensibly, they would use their powers of censorship only to remove material that truly could jeopardize US operations. But in reality, what did they do? They blacked out a quotation from a Supreme Court decision:

"The danger to political dissent is acute where the Government attempts to act under so vague a concept as the power to protect 'domestic security.' Given the difficulty of defining the domestic security interest, the danger of abuse in acting to protect that interest becomes apparent."

read the rest of Justice Censored.

Comments

[bram.livejournal.com]

Whoah. So scary I might dress up as it for Halloween. I think this is going in my LJ memories to remind me to follow up on those links.

[chachachana.livejournal.com]

They blacked out a quotation from a Supreme Court decision:

no way!! omg.