The Bush Administration and Prosecuting the Law

Reason reports:

A president still at least had to abide by the pretense that federal prosecutors served the law, not the president. A wholesale dismissal of attorneys appointed by a prior administration would be met with skepticism in the Senate.

But that's not the case anymore. In March 2006, President Bush signed the reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act. Included in that bill was a provision allowing interim U.S. attorneys appointed by the president to serve indefinitely without Senate confirmation. This means that the prosecutors appointed by President Bush to replace those he just fired will be able to serve out the remainder of his term without being subjected to scrutiny from the Senate.

All of this grows even more troubling when you consider what the priorities of the current Justice Department actually are. Attorney General Gonzalez himself, for example, has that the "top priority" of his tenure at the Justice Department would be, of all things, the prosecution of pornography. Not child pornography, mind you. Regular, adult porn--the kind starring and bought, produced, and sold by consenting adults.

Over time a constitution becomes a worthless piece of paper.