estrea said:
I can't remember the episode at this very moment.
But I seem to remember some reference to Section 31 being written into the Articles of the Federation,
No film, episode, or novel has ever indicated that Section 31 is referenced in the Articles of the Federation (which the novels establish to be an alternate name for what the canon already flipflops between calling the Federation Constitution and the Federation Charter).
You are thinking of a line of dialog from "Inquisition," Section 31's introductory episode, which contains the
following exchange:
BASHIR
And Starfleet sanctions what
you're doing?
SLOAN
We don't submit reports or ask for
approval for specific operations,
if that's what you mean. We're an
autonomous department.
BASHIR
Authorized by whom?
DEEP SPACE NINE: "Inquisition" - REV. 1/29/98 - ACT FIVE 51B.
41A CONTINUED: (4)
Sloan smiles, maintaining control of the situation.
SLOAN
Section Thirty-one was part of the
original Starfleet charter.
BASHIR
That was two hundred years ago.
Are you telling me you've been
operating on your own ever since?
Without specific orders?
Accountable to nobody, but
yourselves?
SLOAN
You make it sound so... ominous.
BASHIR
Isn't it? If what you say is
true, you function as judge, jury
and executioner. I'd say that's
too much power for anyone.
In other words, the organization calling itself Section 31 justifies its existence -- though, notably, does not submit itself to any form of judicial review to verify its own internal self-justification -- by claiming that it was established as part of the "original" Starfleet Charter. That's an interesting bit of wording, since it implies that there have been multiple Starfleet Charters....
... Which ENT verified when it introduced the United Earth Starfleet in "Broken Bow," the space force of United Earth. The United Earth Starfleet (UES), of course, is distinct from the Federation Starfleet (FS), just as the Kingdom of Scotland's Royal Scots Navy is distinct from the current Royal Navy of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
And, sure enough, ENT's "Affliction" established that Article 14, Section 31 of the United Earth Starfleet Charter "allowed certain rules of conduct to be 'bent' during times of extraordinary threat." Notably, a vaguely-worded section of a charter holding that certain rules of conduct may be bent during times of extraordinary crisis -- a section that would by definition only apply to UE Starfleet rules and regulations, not to civil or interstellar law, since such things are beyond the purview of the UES to establish -- does NOT actually contain an explicit establishment of an institution for the purposes of doing such "bendings." Further, the United Earth Starfleet seems to be as defunct by the 24th Century, with its Federation Starfleet, as the Royal Scots Navy is today, and there's no canonical evidence that there are any provisions of the Federation Starfleet Charter authorizing Section 31's existence. Clearly, their legal justification for their existence is, at best, incredibly tenuous and questionable -- and at worst, wholly nonexistent.
For whatever it is worth, however, the novel
Section 31: Cloak by S.D. Perry (2001) establishes that Section 31 of the Federation Starfleet Charter establishes the existence of "an independent branch of Starfleet Intelligence that held non-specific discretionary power over non-specific matters." This, of course, is a far cry from authorizing Section 31 to do whatever it wants with complete autonomy and immunity from the rule of law.
