At the time of this book's publication in 2011, Glenn Greenwald had become a highly- respected journalist, known to most readers through his columns at Salon magazine. With his ongoing publication of the NSA files taken by Edward Snowden, Greenwald has emerged as the foremost independent journalist of our time.

"With Liberty and Justice for Some" is a scathing indictment of the US justice system. Heavily based in fact and replete with information, it is a devastating account of the two -tiered system that judges the indigent harshly while letting the wealthy and well- connected off the hook for crimes -- financial and otherwise -- that are far more damaging and dangerous to society. As thoroughly documented, the legal offenses (including the use of torture and targeted murder) extend to the top of the US political system in the administrations of both GW Bush and Barack Obama. In reading this book, I found myself continually outraged, and my copy is now full of underlinings, marginal notes, and bent-down page corners. Since other reviewers have summarized the nature and content of Greenwald's arguments, I won't duplicate their efforts. I strongly recommend this work to anyone who cares about social justice and to anyone interested in learning of how the law is abused to protect privilege and power in violation of equality, liberty and justice for the many.

Note: As of this writing, this book has received 61 reviews at Amazon, 57 of which awarded one of the highest two ratings. That may be unprecedented for a politically- oriented book, and speaks powerfully for the strength of Greenwald's work and the high regard in which he is held. ( )

Although many consider it little more than a holiday with fireworks, July 4 is meant to celebrate the final approval of the Declaration of Independence and its precepts. One of its key elements is epitomized in the phrase "that all men are created equal." Granted, there was an inherent contradiction with the existence of slavery in America, but the concept was a bit more specific. As many contend, the phrase stands for the proposition that there was to be no inequality before the law, that the law would be blind to a person's status or position.

In With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful, Glenn Greenwald argues that the reality is the opposite in today's justice system. In fact, he says, "like the term rule of law, equality under the law has become merely a platitude." His contention that different rules apply to the politically and economically powerful isn't new but the book makes a good case for the claim.

Greenwald focuses on several specific events in making the case. One is a rather detailed look at the revelation of the George W. Bush's domestic warrantless domestic wiretapping program and the eventual action by Congress to provide full retroactive immunity -- both civil and criminal -- to giant telecommunications companies for their violations of federal law. He also examines the actions of that administration's actions in the "war on terror" and, in a chapter called "Too Big to Jail," the failure -- or refusal -- of the government to prosecute bank officials and others responsible for the financial crisis beginning in 2008. In so doing, With Liberty and Justice for Some repeats often made criticisms of the current state of affairs, particularly the role of money and lobbyists in government. But one of Greenwald's main points is the coalescence and almost seamlessness of government and private elites.

He often points to the so-called revolving door between politics and private industry. Yet he argues that there is far less separation between the two than the concept might imply. Instead, whether in telecommunications or the health or financial industries, "the U.S. government and industry interests essentially form one gigantic, amalgamated, inseparable entity -- with a public division and a private one." And rather than simply make these assertions, Greenwald's examples point to specific instances of this occurring during the last several decades.

Greenwald points to some key phrases that seem to epitomize the situation during that time. Once is Richard Nixon's statement several years after his resignation that "When the president does it, that means it is not illegal." There are often subtle echoes of it in most administrations -- and entirely unsubtle in the expansive position of the George W. Bush administration on executive power. Another phrase the tends to echo and serve as justification for even egregious activities is that we need to move forward to get past what has occurred, rather than looking back and dwelling on events. As Greenwald points out, though, "given that 'looking backwards' is, by definition, what any investigation entails, it [is] a motto of pure lawlessness."

Some critics might claim Greenwald is largely going after the George W. Bush administration. But With Liberty and Justice for Some doesn't exempt the Democrats, Barack Obama or his presidential administration for its critiques. The book points out that, contrary to campaign promises, Obama supported the telecom immunity bill, as did most Democrats. Additionally, Obama's administration has not been afraid to invoke the "need to look forward" mantra in foregoing meaningful investigations of private individuals in the financial crisis or Bush administration officials in its torture and similar policies. The book argues that perhaps the real reason behind not investigating is that doing so would mean finding those responsible.

Greenwald does not limit his analysis and criticisms to political and industry leadership. He believes the established media are part and parcel of the problem. They tend to support the powers that be or to avoid focus on these issues for fear of losing access. Access, after all, is power in the Beltway.

While it might be somewhat easy to argue that Greenwald's examples are the exception and not the rule, one of his most telling points comes when he explores how the less or least powerful in American society are treated before the law. With various statistics and graphs, With Liberty and Justice for Some points out the increasing prison terms in the United States, some of the reasons behind it and its often disparate impact. In fact, a "Rule of Law Index" published in 2010 designed to measure justice systems from the perspective of the ordinary citizen placed the United States 20th out of the 25 nations surveyed. Among other things, it found that only 40 percent of low-income individual found the justice system fair, while 71 percent of the wealthy respondents did. Not only was it the largest gap among developed nations, it compares to a five percent gap in France and basically no gap in Spain.

Ultimately, the book leaves the impression that the last several decades have seen increased institutionalization of disparate legal treatment. While undoubtedly more fair than repressive regimes, the fact government and private industry have skewed the American justice system unfairly -- or at least have created that strong impression -- would be considered by those signing the Declaration of Independence as entirely antithetical to that document's principles.

(Originally posted at A Progressive on the Prairie.)

This is an ER review.

Glenn Greenwald is a constitutional lawyer and columnist for Salon.com. I've followed his blogs for 6 or 7 years, and he is always informed (and informative), factual, logical, and often frightening in his analyses of the assaults on our democracy and civil liberties. This, his third and most recent book, is no exception.

The central principle of the founding of the United States was that it was a nation of laws, not men. The fundamental requirement for a rule of law is uniform application of the law to everyone, including leaders. When law is applied only to the powerless, it becomes a tool of oppression, rather than a safeguard of liberty.

Greenwald's thesis is that not only is it the case that the powerful enjoy some advantages in the application of law in our judicial system, but that the powerful are now routinely allowed to break the law with no repercussions whatsoever. In clear, straight-forward language Greenwald lays out the history of this erosion, beginning with the crimes surrounding the Watergate break-in and coverup. Nixon, who inarguably committed serious felonies, was shielded from all legal consequences by the pardon of his handpicked vice president. Ford's statement, "Our long national nightmare is over..", and the reasons he advanced for the pardon, have been repeated so often since then that they have almost become cliche:

--Prosecution mires us in the divisive past when we should be looking forward;
--It's wrong to criminalize policy disputes;
--Political elites who commit crimes while carrying out their duties are well-intentioned and acting for the overall good;
--Being forced out of office with damaged reputation is punishment enough.

With incontrovertible facts, Greenwald also guides us through the Iran-Contra affair in which White House officials clearly and knowingly broke specific laws and lied to Congress. In fact, when the International Court of Justice ruled in favor of Nicuaragua and ordered the payment of compensation, Reagan refused to comply, and used the US's veto power on the UN Security Council to prevent efforts by the United Nations to enforce the judgement. Geenwald also details the documented crimes committed by the Bush administration--torture, warrantless eavesdropping, CIA "black holes" and renditins, politicized prosecutions, obstruction of justice, Scooter Libby, etc.--and the reasons advanced for ignoring them.

From these and other crimes the idea of "elite immunity" has emerged--some people are just so indispensable to the running of America that giving them immunity is not only in their best interest, but is in our best interest too. This idea has carried over into immunity for those in the private sector who are "too important" to prosecute. For example the wireless companies who were complicit in the violations of FISA were granted retroactive immunity by Congress--a nearly unprecedented departure from the norms of the rule of law. The rationale was that these companies were motivated solely by their feelings of patriotic duty, despite the fact that the one company that refused the government's requests to break the law was threatened with the loss of government contracts while compliant companies were paid millions. Elite immunity has become further embedded because of the revolving door that exists between government officials and private industry. Its latest manifestation is the failure for there to be any consequences for those who perpetrated the financial melt-down of 2008, and the ensuing mortgage foreclosure scandals.

Obama has continued policies eroding the rule of law, although he campaigned on promises to restore the rule of law. Almost immediately after taking office, he blocked and suppressed all investigations of the Bush administration with the excuse that the country needs to look forward, not backwards. Obama has gone so far as to threaten Great Britain with withholding US intelligence regarding terrorists if Great Britain investigated claims of torture by a British resident who was held captive at Guantanamo for 6 years. He also closed the investigation of the destruction by the CIA of videos relating to the torture of terror suspects it was expressly ordered to keep.

Most of the facts set forth in this book are and have been readily available, and are probably well-known to those who follow politics and law and are interested in the truth. The book is stunning in that it sets forth cogently and logically the story of how much our democracy has eroded. While an initial reaction to reading the book might be to close one's eyes in despair, knowledge is the first step to correcting these inequities. I urge you to read this book. Even if it sounds as though the book is on the opposite political spectrum from yours, this book is important if we are again to become a nation of laws. 4 stars ( )

What a profoundly relevant and necessary book about the two tiered justice system in American politics.Greenwald's take is that todays gross misconduct to protect the politically powerful started when President Ford pardoned President Nixon. He used the same line about looking forward not backwards that President Obama used to not only condone but retroactively immunize President Bush wiretapping , banking crisis, mortgage crisis and torture crimes and the Obama administrations own crimes. For make no mistake the waterboarding continues.This chain of events eventually led to how the private banking sector as well as the telecoms received immunity.The way the auto companies were given strict regulations for bailout money but the banking sector couldn't be stopped giving large bonuses. Why were the auto employees benefits taken then?Greenwald makes a very strong case in his explanation with direct quotes from Eric Holder, the press and politicians WHY the political and financial elite escape with no attempt of justice. Apparently in the spirit of bipartisanship you don't want the next political office to investigate your own administration.The hypocrisy doesn't end there as the not looking back but forward doesn't hold true for other nations who give their powerful immunity.Then you can't move forward without charging criminals.Greenwald also covers America's vast prison state and increasingly harsher sentencing that is "bipartisan" and the financial sector who runs the prisons which has a hand in shaping our drug laws.Last but not least the vast disparity in the Obama administration to go after whistleblowers but never the criminals themselves.If you follow his blog at all you'll be familar with this topic but despite some criticisms that he repeats himself people need to read this. Too many people actually aren't aware of torture convention and really do think torture of non prisoners of war is legal because of the Geneva convention.I recommend this book to everyone. I'm a regular follower of Greenwald's column at salon.com. He's fair, well researched and never gives over to hyperbole. America never had a problem with a rich class but when the laws don't apply to them and they write the laws with an agenda to lengthen prison sentences then we are no longer a country of laws but rule of man. ( )

I like Greenwald in Salon.com. This book felt a bit like a rehash of all his Salon writings. Still good to read. But way better if you already hadnt read the stuff online. ( )