Law's Detour

by Margulies, Peter

• ISBN13: 9780814795590
• ISBN10: 0814795595
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-04-26
• Publisher: New York Univ Pr

Summary

From the Justice Department's memos defending coerced interrogation to Alberto Gonzales' firing of U.S. Attorneys who did not fit the Bush Administration's political needs,Law's Detourpaints an alarming picture of the many detours that George W. Bush and his allies created to thwart transparency and undermine the rule of law after September 11, 2001. Pursuing those detours, Bush officials set up a law-free zone at Guantanamo, ordered massive immigration raids that separated families, and screened candidates for civil service jobs to ensure the hiring of "real Americans."While government needs flexibility to address genuine risks to national securitywhich certainly exist in the post-9/11 worldthe Bush Administration's use of detours distracted the government from urgent priorities, tarnished America's reputation, and threatened voting and civil rights. In this comprehensive analysis of Bush officials' efforts to stretch and strain the justice system, Peter Margulies canvasses the costs of the Administration's many detours, from resisting accountability in the war on terrorism to thwarting economic and environmental regulation. Concise and full of compelling anecdotes,Law's Detourmaps these aberrations, surveys the damage done, and reaffirms the virtues of transparency and dialog that the Bush administration dismissed.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
The Perfect Storm of Politics, Ideology, and Crisis	p. 1
Targeting Individuals and Groups	p. 7
The Architecture of Impunity	p. 25
Centralizing Policy and Patronage	p. 79
Conspiracy's Discontents: Prevention and False Positives After September 11	p. 99
Justice and Elections	p. 127
Regulation of Business and the Flight from Accountability at Home and Abroad	p. 141
Afterword	p. 157
Notes	p. 165
Index	p. 213
About the Author	p. 221
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