Such behavior is unfortunately typical of the Bush White House. When a Detroit District Court judge ruled on Thursday that legally unsupervised state interception of telephone calls and emails was unacceptable under the US Constitution, President George Bush immediately said that he was confident that the judgment would be overturned.

There was not for one minute any sign of hesitation on the president’s part that suggested he was reviewing a policy upon which he had embarked — as he originally saw it, for the best of all possible motives. Once again this underlines what a remarkably unreflective individual sits in the Oval Office.

Assurance in politicians is not a bad quality. But when that assurance closes a leader’s ears to any carefully reasoned arguments which do not suit his purposes, it becomes dangerous obstinacy. The US Constitution is fundamental to the American way of life and George W. Bush has sworn at two inaugurations to uphold it. Therefore, when a respected judge, albeit in a relatively junior court, rules that the constitution has been violated, the least a wise president should do would surely be to promise to study the judgment before giving a reaction. But not George Bush. The court’s decision violated his own battered plans in his war on terrorism and he was having none of it. It is this unwavering certainty in his own rectitude that is so alarming to an increasing number of Americans as well as America’s friends abroad.

Many have already reflected that the crime of 9/11 was at bottom, an assault on the American way of life and all that the US holds dear. The president himself has said this. But at this point, his reasoning grinds to a halt. He and his ardent neocon advisers clearly do not appreciate that by throwing over constitutional rights, they are actually doing part of the terrorists’ work for them.

Al Qaeda’s international attacks have made the world a nervous and less tolerant place. There clearly are compromises that must be made to allow the authorities to take on these shadowy men of evil. But none of those compromises should strike at the very values upon which all civilized societies are based.

In the US, the law is that wiretaps must be authorized by the courts. Yet ever since 9/11, without the approval of Congress, the Bush administration has secretly allowed the National Security Agency to spy on whomever they want when they want without any recourse to due legal process. Had it not been for whistleblowers within the NSA, this extraordinary policy would never have become known.

Now that the facts are out in the open, at the very least the administration owes the American people some kind of apology for acting so dangerously outside the constitution. And if Bush is so sure that what he did was right, then he should be turning to legislators to see if they agree. The administration is appealing to a higher court. We can only wonder if the judge in the higher court will also uphold the US Constitution