Great news from Cleveland--a federal judge may have just demolished part of the "unitary executive" theory. Back in 2006, the Office of Foreign Asset Control froze the assets of KindHearts, a Columbus charity, as part of a terrorism investigation. Well, on Tuesday, federal judge James Carr ruled that this action was unconstitutional.
Citing British seizures and searches without warrants in colonial America, Judge Carr called the Fourth Amendment "a bulwark against the abuses and excesses of unchecked government authority."
He said that "nothing in our Fourth Amendment jurisprudence or constitutional tradition supports complete elimination" of the need for the government to establish probable cause, allow judicial review and use court warrants in such cases.
Carr's ruling (viewable at the ACLU site) is absolutely scathing. He ruled that simply freezing KindHearts' assets because of an investigation into links with Hamas violated KindHearts' right to due process.
Treasury had claimed that under the president's national security authority, the Fourth Amendment didn't apply to groups suspected of foreign terrorist links. Baloney, said Carr. Additionally, Carr said, the seizure crippled KindHearts' ability to defend itself by challenging the evidence against it. The charity was unable to pay its own lawyers, and was forced to turn to the ACLU for help. Also, Treasury only explained the reasoning behind the seizure only after requests from KindHearts' lawyers.
Carr has ordered a hearing for September to determine possible remedies. One can hope Geithner and Holder show some leadership and opt not to contest this further.