no legal justifications

Three federal judges have concluded that Bush’s wiretapping violated criminal law, a felony subject to 5 years in prison and a $10,000 fine for each offense. The law really does say that.

Glenn Greenwald at Salon:

It’s been obvious for more than four years that Bush, Cheney, NSA Director (and former CIA Director) Michael Hayden and many other Bush officials broke the law — committed felonies — in spying on Americans without warrants.

This decision may make it more difficult for the Obama administration to hide behind sweeping secrecy claims in the future, but it won’t negate the fact that we have decided that our leading political officials are completely free to commit crimes while in power and to do so with total impunity.