For 25 years it was my privilege and my ministry as an assistant attorney general of the state of Mississippi to represent Mississippians in the courts of Mississippi and in the federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. The ability to represent 2.5 million Mississippians is an awesome and humbling experience that imprints a person forever with the responsibilities which it carries.

Two weeks ago, I learned that the president of the United States had authorized the interception of communications of people within the United States without the authority of a court authorizing his actions. I then heard the excuses for these illegal acts offered by the supporters of the president and the president himself.

I am writing to this newspaper today because I feel a tremendous responsibility to tell Mississippians that in my lifetime, I have never seen, nor even studied, such an extreme example of a presidential violation of the constitutional laws of the United States.

President Bush should be immediately impeached for the indefensible violations that he admits and for which he now seeks the approval of Americans. President Bush's acts are blatant violations of our statutory laws and, more critically, the Constitution of the United States of America.

To a person trained in law and to anyone familiar with the U.S. Constitution, the legal reasons offered for the acts of the president are patently false and legally wrong.

It is critical to the future development of this nation that Americans speak up and emphasize to the Bush administration and to Congress that our ancestors clearly taught us that “we are a nation of laws and not of men.” I urge every reader to take it as his patriotic duty to not allow the principles that established our great nation to be disregarded by a reckless administration. We must clearly tell Washington that warrantless searches and torture are not a part of the “American way.”