Shocking Revelation: The US Government Breaks the Law

By Farol

From The Guardian:

Faced with a litany of lawsuits and objections to its plans to build a 670-mile fence along the border with Mexico, the US government moved yesterday to bypass more than 30 laws and regulations in its effort to complete the fence by the end of the year.

Opposition to the 2006 secure fence act, which instructed the department of homeland security to build the fence by the end of 2008, has united an unlikely coalition of property owners and environmentalists.

Property owners and developers have launched numerous lawsuits to deny the government access to their lands, arguing that their property rights would be violated or the values of their homes suffer.

Environmentalists have challenged the government, saying that the plans would harm the natural habitats of species ranging from big cats to owls.

Native American groups have also protested that their traditional lands and burial sites would be desecrated by the fence.

The administration's action echoes a controversial provision of a 2005 act, which allowed the department of homeland security to waive all laws "necessary to ensure expeditious construction of the barriers and roads".

In a just world, all of this would be causing national outrage. It would be on the front page of every major newspaper and discussed by every TV pundit. But in the twisted world that has become reality in the U.S. today, it's just accepted that the government can break our laws with impunity. (Or, in the more polite language preferred by media outlets, "bypass" them. Can we please retire this word—at least, as it applies to laws—forever? When the government ignores the law, or asserts that it is above it, it BREAKS THE LAW, pure and simple).

In a way, there's really very little reason to be surprised by what the administration is doing here. This is, after all, an administration that has consistently asserted that it is exempt from laws that apply to everyone else. If lawyers at Justice can author decisions claiming that the U.S. has the right to violate treaties regarding torture to which it is a party, then why can't the Department of Homeland Security just decide to break "over 30 laws and regulations" in order to pander to the xenophobia of the Republican base? It makes perfect sense, in a sick sort of way.