The Ghost of the FBI Past --

University of Louisville Law Professor Justin Walker has an important op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal.  He reminds us of the consequences of an "independent" FBI. Independence became lack of accountability to democratically elected presidents.

I am generally aware of the misdeeds of the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover. The recent movie, Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House does a good job of illustrating that in the aftermath of Hoover's death, during Watergate.

What Walker's piece reveals, however, is that Hoover's abuse of civil rights extends to thousands more ordinary Americans than I had previously thought; this was not a problem limited to Hollywood stars and prominent politicians.

Walker's op-ed is a condensed version of a piece that will be published later this year in the George Washington Law Review, which I look forward to reading.