Just when you think things couldn’t get any more absurd… The Memory Hole is reporting a truly Orwellian attempt at censorship by the Justice Department. The ACLU had filed some documents as part of its ongoing case against the Patriot Act, and the Justice Department – as is their right, apparently – chose to black out portions of the material before it was published. The supreme irony is that the text that they blacked out is taken from a Supreme Court decision:
“The danger to political dissent is acute where the Government attempts to act under so vague a concept as the power to protect ‘domestic security.’ Given the difficulty of defining the domestic security interest, the danger of abuse in acting to protect that interest becomes apparent.”
Fortunately, the court rejected this redaction. I would love to read an interview with the Justice Department staffer who tried to censor the words of the Supreme Court. What mental processes were involved, I wonder. Any lawyers out there?