Secret Laws and Just a Piece of Paper

This is exactly the kind of stuff that no one believes when you tell them.

Atrios links to The Washington Monthly which links to:

The Bush administration...claims that the ID requirement is necessary for security but has refused to identify any actual regulation requiring it.

A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals seemed skeptical of the Bush administration's defense of secret laws and regulations but stopped short of suggesting that such a rule would be necessarily unconstitutional.

"How do we know there's an order?" Judge Thomas Nelson asked. "Because you said there was?"

....The Justice Department has said it could identify the secret law under seal, which would be available to the 9th Circuit but not necessarily Gilmore's lawyers. But any public description would not be permitted, the department said.

Congratulations.

You are now ruled by laws you lack the authority to be made aware of or defend yourself against.

It's official. Via The Sideshow, Dear Leader sez:

"Stop throwing the Constitution in my face. It's just a goddamned piece of paper!"