1115.org

It’s getting so that this kind of thing hardly qualifies as news any more:

The Justice Department is defending a provision in a 2008 surveillance law that provides legal immunity to telecommunications companies that cooperated with the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program.

The department was expected to defend the provision. But its stance in a brief filed today in a California federal court underscores the surprising degree to which the Obama administration — at least in court — is determined to shield President Bush’s controversial counter-terrorism policies from legal challenge or even public scrutiny.

The Obama administration is seeking to have a raft of consolidated lawsuits challenging the legality of the warrantless surveillance dismissed. U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker, who is overseeing the consolidated lawsuits in the Northern District of California, asked the Justice Department for its views on the immunity provision in the law.
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Earlier this month, the Obama administration followed its predecessor in invoking the state secrets privilege to shield government information in two lawsuits against Bush adminstration (sic) policies.

For a man who espouses transparency and accountability, this determination to shield Bush-shit from legal challenge or public scrutiny is puzzling, to say the least.

Obama seems to be saying transparency and accountability for moi, but not for the previous administration’s misdeeds. Isn’t that a very partisan approach to T-and-A?