{"id":38797,"date":"2013-09-22T23:39:05","date_gmt":"2013-09-23T05:39:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/22\/you-can-have-a-democracy-if-the-government-is-allowed-to-lie.html"},"modified":"2013-09-28T13:58:09","modified_gmt":"2013-09-28T19:58:09","slug":"you-can-have-a-democracy-if-the-government-is-allowed-to-lie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/22\/you-can-have-a-democracy-if-the-government-is-allowed-to-lie.html","title":{"rendered":"You can’t have a democracy if the government is allowed to lie"},"content":{"rendered":"
Never mind the question of whether the government overuses its "national security" privilege to hide things that are only marginally related to national security. \u00a0If, in the name of "national security," the executive branch is allowed to lie to the judiciary, without any repercussions, then one of the fundamental checks and balances of our system is completely lost. If the government can lie to the public and to the courts without fear of any punishment, then how can we live in an effective democracy?<\/p>\n

Reshared post from +Alex Grossman<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

"Should the government be allowed to lie to the courts in the name of national security? This is the question that judges on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will have to consider in the next few weeks.<\/i><\/p>\n

On Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California (ACLU SoCal) asked the full Ninth Circuit to rehear a case in which the government repeatedly lied to a federal district judge about the existence of FBI surveillance documents.<\/i><\/p>\n

If the judges of the Ninth Circuit fail to act, there will be grave repercussions for government transparency. Federal courts provide a check on the government's abuse of power — a check that is more critical now than ever before, as individual judges decide so many fundamental questions about our rights in private, with nothing but the government's assurances to guide them. Allowing the government to lie to these very same courts — knowing that there will be no punishment if they are caught — puts the integrity of our judicial system at risk."<\/i><\/p>\n

h\/t +<\/span>ACLU of Southern California<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n \n <\/div>\n

Should the Government Be Punished When It Lies to the Courts?<\/a>
\n This was originally posted on The Huffington Post.
\nShould the government be allowed to lie to the courts in the name of national security?…\n <\/p>\n

View this post on Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Never mind the question of whether the government overuses its "national security" privilege to hide things that are only marginally related to national security. \u00a0If, in the name of "national security," the executive branch is allowed to lie to the judiciary, without any repercussions, then one of the fundamental checks and balances of our system … Continue reading “You can’t have a democracy if the government is allowed to lie”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,17,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-homeland-security","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":38224,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/09\/transparency-democracy-and-security.html","url_meta":{"origin":38797,"position":0},"title":"Transparency, Democracy, and Security","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 9-Jul-13 11:43pm","format":false,"excerpt":"If you don't know the laws and judicial decisions being made, you can't be an informed participant in the civic life of the nation. \u00a0Secret FISA courts whose decisions and interpretations are not for our tender ears, rubber-stamping executive branch requests that are offered through assertion, not adversarial advocacy ...\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27195,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/03\/21\/secrecy-and-democracy-are-incompatible.html","url_meta":{"origin":38797,"position":1},"title":"Secrecy and Democracy are incompatible","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 21-Mar-12 11:14pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I will grant the need for certain operational secrets, especially as those operations are going on. But ...'In the letter, [Senators] Wyden and Udall reiterated their concerns about hiding the nature of the program from the American public, urging a balance between national security and government transparency. \"As we see\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9250,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/08\/01\/feds_appeal_rul.html","url_meta":{"origin":38797,"position":2},"title":"Feds appeal ruling loss in the EFF\/AT&T case","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 1-Aug-06 3:05pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A few weeks back, Judge Vaughan Walker ruled that the EFF suit against AT&T for allegedly turning over phone records to the NSA -- an arguably illegal act -- could...","rel":"","context":"In "Homeland Security"","block_context":{"text":"Homeland Security","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/homeland-security"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28243,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/06\/12\/checks-and-balances.html","url_meta":{"origin":38797,"position":3},"title":"Checks and balances","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 12-Jun-12 11:25am","format":false,"excerpt":"The term \"checks and balances\" doesn't necessarily mean conflict or opposition between the branches of government. The sad thing is that the Courts and Congress have simply declined to check the Executive's ever-increasing exercise of power in the name of \"national security.\" \u00a0The danger, of course, is that by the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38882,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/29\/the-money-question-about-the-nsa.html","url_meta":{"origin":38797,"position":4},"title":"The Money Question about the NSA","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 29-Sep-13 10:27am","format":false,"excerpt":"\"But they're the good guys, right?\"Short answer: Even if what they are doing right now is good, they're opening the door (literally as well as figuratively) for the bad guys, foreign and domestic, to do bad stuff.Reshared post from +Kee Hinckley\u275d The NSA mission is national security. How is the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12467,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/04\/23\/too_many_secrets_marty_2.html","url_meta":{"origin":38797,"position":5},"title":"“Too many secrets, Marty …”","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 23-Apr-08 3:54pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Sometimes the government has to keep secrets. There are certain operations of, yes, national security that have to be kept under wraps, at least for a time. But there is...","rel":"","context":"In "Homeland Security"","block_context":{"text":"Homeland Security","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/homeland-security"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38797"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38862,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38797\/revisions\/38862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}