On September 14, 2001, President’s Bush’s lawyers sought advice from the Justice Department regarding Bush’s use of war powers inside America. “Bush’s legal team was arguing that the President not only had power to defend the nation as he saw fit…he also had the power to override existing laws that Congress had specifically designed to curb him. …in the view of Bush’s lawyers, all such statutes, including those prohibiting torture, secret detention, and warrantless surveillance, could now be set aside.”
– Jane Mayer, The Dark Side, Pages 44-47