Posted on 08/17/2006 9:49:00 AM PDT by neverdem
Associated Press
Government's warrantless spying found to violate free speech, privacy rights
DETROIT -- A federal judge ruled today that the government's warrantless wiretapping program is unconstitutional and ordered an immediate halt to it.
U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit became the first judge to strike down the National Security Agency's program, which she says violates the rights to free speech and privacy.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on behalf of journalists, scholars and lawyers who say the program has made it difficult for them to do their jobs. They believe many of their overseas contacts are likely targets of the program, which involves secretly taping conversations between people in the U.S. and people in other countries.
The government argued that the program is well within the president's authority, but said proving that would require revealing state secrets.
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
I agree, what harm could come from waiting a few days while FISA reviews the warrant.
Yes, the administration did just this over 18,000 times
There is a strong anti-civil rights streak around here these days. They will be the first ones whining when it is used against them down the road.
indeed, there are none so blind as those who refuse to see.
What is so hard about showing cause and getting a warrent?
I agree.
Thank you/
Time....
Life and death!
Get it? We are at WAR!
It is hard for software to do it 1000 per second.
Chicken and Egg - it is the monitoring that "triggers" the cause.
Monitoring, is NOT wiretapping. The Intel Community monitors 24/7/365 all over the world.
It is the foreign intercepts that trigger domestic requests for warrents for taps.
this has worked well over 18,000 times.
Just ask yourself, would you trust the clinton administration with the power to tap without oversight?
Yet you are willing to give an unelected judiciary powers the people never imagined when the Constitution was ratified. The power to wage war is a power that belongs to the Executive. The duty to protect the American people from those who wage war against us also belongs to the Executive and not the Judiciary.
Can you imagine this?
A Judge to General Washington: 'General Washington, communications between Arnold and the British have an expectation of privacy and thus you can not intercept them.'
Me either.
What is so hard about showing cause and getting a warrent? GOOD decision
How do you get a warrant for a disposable cell phone?
Good question. I guess you can't.
However this argument opens the door, for a force a gazillian times more powerful than a few muzzies with weapons, to come down on our heads................
the US government.
How about this solution?
totally legal and constitutional - ready?
Send them all home, for good, 72 hours, bye bye.
Anyone who is not a citizen must leave.
Every green card, every student, tourist and H1B, we have a list.
Americans first, political correctness - last.
My post to you was very tongue in cheek. Please read one of my responses to another poster linked below. It sums up my thoughts on this.
Also, Hugh Hewitt, an Attorney and former law school professor has stated that the ruling is so flawed that even a first year law student would be raked over the coals for supporting such a thing.
I'm not an attorney, but I do have to admit consideration of this topic by simple reasoning tells me this ruling will be shot down in the short term. You never know how the SCOTUS will go these days though. Remember, they're willing to use highly questionable European rulings as precident these days.
It's hard to believe they've read a single history book, since European rule was something we fled from as much as 500 years ago.
Thanks for the response. Sorry to have posted my thoughts in a manner that wasn't clear to you.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1685330/posts?page=135#135
a warrant against who? you don't know who you want to tap in advance.
Oh, I think our government has a pretty good idea whom they have issued visas to............right?
go get permission to tap them all - politically correct no, but at least it's a step closer to constitutional
You obviously are totally ignorant of the issues and must therefore be a RAT!!
Truely pathetic and weak.
Not even an attempt at a reasonable argument.
Cut straight to name calling and making a gratuitous assertion.
Interesting, you attributed the actions of our president to the suggested future actions of clinton in a disparaging manner.
Even the liberal Jeffry Toobin tonight on CNN said this is a ruling that will not stand; he admitted it was more political than legal. THis liberal said no doubt it will be overturned.
Even the liberal Jeffry Toobin tonight on CNN said this is a ruling that will not stand;
So you're lining up with Jeffry Toobin.
I really think this judge, regardless of her voting philosophy, or who appointer her, has a little bit better grasp of constitutional law than toobin. don't you think?
Maybe it will be overturned, maybe toobin is indeed correct........
I'm not emotionally involved.
With all due respect, I was simply making the statement that Mr. Toobin, a lefty liberal admitted on air that this judgement by this particular judge was based on politics, not legal analysis. I found it quite an interesting statement.
Furthermore, none of us here know what the NSA is doing....we know what the NYTimes published, and we KNOW that it was incorrect (see statments by heads of both Senate and House Intelligence committees, dems and pubbies).
That the old media likes to refer to this program as a "domestic surveillance program" doesn't mean that is what it is. Just because the "reporters" at the NYTimes called it that, and the rest of the lame "reporters" repeated it, doesn't mean its true. Truth is we don't know what NSA is doing, and we probably never will...thankfully. Secrets are meant to be secret, and those who revealed whatever aspects of the program they chose to reveal, will eventually be held accountable and spend some time behind bars. That is what I'm looking forward to.
That says it all.. a Carter stooge, aka U.S. Enemy Appeaser.
these foreign intercepts have been a routine practice for decades - no warrants.
that's right - suppose the FISA court says "no" - what is the executive supposed to do, order that the recordings made be destroyed, and no further taps be allowed? its lunacy, the idea of a retroactive warrant.
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