Glenn and Helen interview Judge Richard Posner on the constitution, national emergencies, terrorism, privacy, surveillance, FISA courts, espionage, and civil libertarians in denial. A snippet:

“I think, you know, we need some fresh thinking. There’s a tendency of civil libertarians to kind of repeat tired formulas. It’s a kind of nostalgia for the old days. It’s like the people who are misty-eyed about the New Deal and things like that or the labor union struggles of the 1920s, the Wobblies…civil libertarians are nostalgic for the McCarthy days. A simple enemy — McCarthyism…Now, it seems to me, immensely more complex.”

To borrow a phrase: Indeed.

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