PLANNING PERMISSION FOR A FENCE BETWEEN MEXICANS & LAWYERS

I got this through Greeniewatch which is a rather useful site pointing out the inanities of greenery. It has a very interesting article dated 11th Feb about a company whose major running expense is lobbying & campaign donations & actually running their government subsidized business costs less. Of course in the UK we would never have such a free-market conflict since organisations like Scottish Renewables, the Carbon Trust etc which spend large amounts trying to sell greenery are fully funded by the government they are trying to lobby.

Anyway the article was about how, since keeping out Mexicans is a genuine issue the US government have passed a really draconian law to prevent greens using the courts, etc to slow building. I commented that the law says:

"Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall have the authority to waive, and shall waive, all laws such Secretary, in such Secretary's sole discretion, determines necessary to ensure expeditious construction of the barriers and roads under this section."


I hope the green lawyers arn't any better than the government ones - for this to mean what it is supposed to mean it should be phrased


"Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall have the authority to waive, and shall waive, all laws such Secretary, in such Secretary's sole discretion, determines MAY PREVENT expeditious construction of the barriers and roads under this section."

The law as quoted actually prevents the suspension of rules which would allow expeditious construction of the fence. It may be that elsewhere in the Act it is properly spelled out but considering that America is so notoriously over-lawyered it does seem a remarkable piece of drafting.