Dishonesty Unbecoming a Senator

Senator Jon Kyl filed a misleading amicus brief in the recent Hamdan case which was intended to decieve the Supreme Court, in the most sophmoric way imaginable, about the legislative history of the Detainee Treatment Act. He inserted testimony into the Congressional Record designed to mimic live testimony that never happened, which supported his brief’s view of the legislative intent regarding the jurisdictional provisions of the law. Then he cited that faked testimony as evidence of the legislative intent in his brief. Despite clear agreement between GOP and Democratic negotiators specifically about the law’s jurisdictional implications, Kyl still thought he could get away with perpetrating a fraud on the entire U.S. Supreme Court.

It didn’t work. Justice Stephens, writing for the Court, devoted a footnote to Kyl’s scheme that is as close to scathing as most jurists ever get. Justice Scalia, who usually derides the value of legislative history due to its malliable nature, cited Kyl’s lies in his dissent: go figure. The D.C. circuit rejected Kyl’s amicus brief on a subsequent related case, though it accepted all 5 other applications for amicus status: I have no doubt as to why the courts no longer want to hear what Kyl has to say. Even now, Kyl is sticking to his guns and attacking the Court through the National Review in attempt to brazen out his lies.

Now, I am a cynical person. There is little that I would put past the current leadership of the GOP. But such a stunning act of arrogance and utter disregard for intellectual honesty in public life I have seldom seen. Who the fuck does Kyl think he is? Bush?

Kyl thinks he can lie to the Supreme Court and get away with it. Can anyone honestly think such a man would have any hesitation about lying to mere voters? If Kyl, a lawyer, who by training and professional ethics is honor bound by a duty of candor to the courts, thinks he can lie with impunity to the highest court in the land about a matter of public record and get away with it, is there anything he wouldn’t lie about?

Kyl is simply a shameless liar. He should be disbarred for this attempted deception. He should be turned out of office in humiliation and stripped of his Arizona and Supreme Court bar memberships. No lawyer who wasn’t a Senator would survive such a blantant and intentional attempt to decieve a court. I can conceive of no reason why one who is a Senator should be held to any lesser standard.

I have never supported Kyl. In fact, I despise his politics. But I never felt that he was personally morally unfit to hold high public office. Now, I’m sure of it.