http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/03/06/Exclusive-ACLU-backs-Rand

EXCLUSIVE: ACLU BACKS PAUL'S FILIBUSTER

 2640

 18

 17.6K

 

---

Email Article

Print ArticleSend a Tip

by BEN SHAPIRO 6 Mar 2013, 3:21 PM PDT 153 POST A COMMENT

On Wednesday afternoon, Christopher Anders, Senior Legislative Council at the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington D.C., spoke with Breitbart News exclusively about Senator Rand Paul’s filibuster of the John Brennan nomination to CIA director over the administration’s failures to answer questions about domestic use of drones. Anders backed Paul to the hilt, and was highly critical of the Obama administration.

“It’s certainly a courageous and historic effort by Senator Rand Paul and his colleagues, who are now increasing in numbers and coming to the fore in support of his filibuster,” said Anders. “The information Senator Paul is looking for goes to the very core of what the US is and who Americans are as a people.” Anders pointed out that the information Paul seeks is easy for the administration to hand over – it “ought to be a no-brainer,” he said. “It ought to be upsetting for everyone, all Americans of both parties, to not be able to get a straight answer to what is a very straightforward question from Senator Paul.”

Anders went on to explain that the Department of Justice could post the legal memos in question on the internet within an hour, or Xerox them and send them to the floor of the Senate. “The American people have a right to know,” said Anders. “Senator Paul is right to push for that information and I think he’s doing a very good job of exercising his constitutional duty as a member of Congress in our system of checks and balances to help serve as a check on the executive branch, on the president.”

Anders called the administration’s stonewalling “inexcusable.” The standards apparently applied by the administration, he continued, “are not standards recognized by any court in the land, any court anywhere in the world.”

Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the book “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013).