A good sign

Something happened this August that was a good sign. So far it is only a sign, but even this is a cause to hope for new struggles.

A Detroit-area federal district judge—a senior African-American woman named Anna Diggs Taylor—slapped down the arrogant president of the United States by ruling that it is unconstitutional for the Bush administration to monitor U.S. citizens’ international communications without a court warrant.

In her explanation of this ruling, she said: “There are no hereditary kings in America and no powers not created by the Constitution.”

Now, no one should be misled about what this means for freedoms and privacy and rights. Nor should they think it will stop wiretaps if the government really wants them. Before Bush, all the government had to do to get people’s phones tapped was ask a rubber-stamp committee to authorize the request.

Nor is Bush giving in. He has said that the judge and those who support the decision “don’t understand the world we live in.” That is, George Bush insists that he needs to keep this authority he usurped, all because of his “war on terror.” It’s the same argument he used to justify the U.S. invasion and destruction of Afghanistan. It’s the same argument he used to justify the invasion and occupation of Iraq, and now to justify his decision to remain in Iraq. It’s the same argument he uses for threatening Iran and Syria. It’s the same argument he used to support Israel’s bombing and invasion of Lebanon, and for torturing prisoners in Guantánamo.

Judge Taylor’s decision won’t eliminate these crimes, but that doesn’t diminish what she has done.

Some legal pedants have criticized the judge’s phrasing of her decision. They are missing the point. She finally said “no” to George Bush and his phony “war on terror.” She stood up to him and to an administration that has won the world series for arrogance of power.

It’s not the strongest challenge to his authority. That has come from the Iraqi resistance, from the Lebanese who refused to allow the “invincible” Israeli armed forces to grab a foothold in their country, from the Cubans and Venezue lans who demand their sovereignty, from Afghanis who have made their country a living hell for occupation troops.

But none of the above happened right here at home. And though Judge Taylor’s dissent doesn’t carry the weight of a mass strike or of the huge demonstrations that have confronted the power of the Bush regime, it’s at least a good sign that someone in the judicial system is reflecting the shift in mass consciousness and starting to say “no” to this arrogant, corrupt and criminal regime in Washington. Let’s hope it’s only a beginning.