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CMLawLibraryBlog

The CM Law Library Blog seeks to inform the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law community about key legal education, research, practice, and law library news, with a particular focus on Cuyahoga County and Ohio as well as faculty research interests.

Latest Presidential power claim

Schuyler M. Cook | January 04, 2007 - 20:38

Just a year and four days after the New York Times belatedly reported the Bush administration's use of the National Security Administration engaging in domestic surveillance without FISA approval, the President issued a signing statement claiming the authority to open American's mail.

According to a news story in the January 4th New York Daily News, the aforementioned signing statement asserts the authority in response to a postal reform law. More specifically, the signing statement indicates the "executive branch shall construe subsection 404(c) of title 39, as enacted by subsection 1010(e) of the Act, which provides for opening of an item of a class of mail otherwise sealed against inspection, in a manner consistent, to the maximum extent permissible, with the need to conduct searches in exigent circumstances, such as to protect human life and safety against hazardous materials, and the need for physical searches specifically authorized by law for foreign intelligence collection."

The postal reform signing statement is dated December 20, 2006 and the eventual New York Times article was published on December 16, 2005.


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