When Justice let us down

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The documents released Monday by the Justice Department’s new attorney general, Eric Holder, demonstrate the disturbing scope of powers that George W. Bush claimed under his presidency by browbeating a wrongly acquiescent Justice Department.

One opinion, issued Oct. 23, 2001, by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel — the branch of Justice supposedly entrusted with ensuring that the department’s opinions adhere to constitutional strictures — said the president could override the Fourth Amendment and the Posse Comitatus Act to wage a domestic war on terrorism.

The Fourth Amendment bars searches and seizures without legal warrants issued by judges for probable cause.

The Posse Comitatus Act historically forbids the use of American military forces for police actions on domestic soil.

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