Posted on 06/07/2013 3:33:15 PM PDT by RummyChick
In the midst of revelations that the government has conducted extensive top-secret surveillance operations to collect domestic phone records and internet communications, the Justice Department was due to file a court motion Friday in its effort to keep secret an 86-page court opinion that determined that the government had violated the spirit of federal surveillance laws and engaged in unconstitutional spying.
(Excerpt) Read more at motherjones.com ...
Mother Jones does not actually mention He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, but I'm impressed that they criticize a scandal (crime spree?) occurring under his administration.
Same here!
Just picking on you!
:-)
Heh! Me too. :-)
TESTIMONY OF ROBERT D. ALT, FELLOW, LEGAL AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, THE JOHN M. ASHBROOK CENTER FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS, ASHLAND UNIVERSITY
As you begin to take up the potential legislation that’s
been authored, there may be a temptation to wait for a judicial determination of the NSA wiretap program. Let me implore you, don’t indulge that temptation. While the District Court recently offered its opinion that the program is unconstitutional, the court clearly erred with respect to the question of standing and failed to properly apply Supreme Court precedent which was directly on point.
It is extraordinarily likely that the District Court’s
opinion will be reversed on appeal without the reviewing court having to address any of the merits in the case. Given the difficulty in establishing standing in this case in general and against—in these sorts of challenges against FISA in particular, the legal status of the NSA wiretap program is not easily amenable or reducible to judicial determination.
http://www.fas.org/irp///////////congress/2006_hr/fisa4.html
Newsweek Article, ``Palace Revolt,’’ dated February 6, 2006
palace revolt
They were loyal conservatives, and Bush appointees. They fought a quiet battle to rein in the president’s power in the war on terror. And they paid a price for it. A NEWSWEEK investigation.
By Daniel Klaidman, Stuart Taylor Jr. and Evan Thomas
Newsweek
Available at the very end of the link in its entirety.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/17/AR2006081700650.html
A federal judge in Detroit ruled yesterday that the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance program is unconstitutional, delivering the first decision that the Bush administration’s effort to monitor communications without court oversight runs afoul of the Bill of Rights and federal law.
Court Says Warrantless Mobile Phone Tracking Is Unconstitutional Nov. 11, 2011 http://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20111119/00431416839/court-says-warrantless-mobile-phone-tracking-is-unconstitutional.shtml
Friday, 02 April 2010 12:50
Federal Judge Rules Warrantless Wiretapping Violates FISAhttp://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/constitution/item/7718-federal-judge-rules-warrantless-wiretapping-violates-fisa
When the NYT ..Bob Beckel. .Alan Colmes..Shep Smith are on the same side as Mark Levin, Rand Paul and James Sensinbrenner you KNOW something’s happening. .
star chambers making a comeback?
12 years ago:
To: Registered
Keep in mind that the new law’s definition of “domestic terrorism” is so broad, as we shall see in future columns, that entirely innocent people can be swept into this surveillance dragnet.
President Hillary would like to know which of you have friends in the NRA, or the pro-life movement, so your communications can be monitored by the CIA, for the children.
I guess we’re all OK with Echelon, Know Your Customer, and National ID cards now as well. If you have nothing to hide...
This Patriot Act stinks to high heaven. If you don’t think this will eventually (if not currently) be used to stifle political dissent in this country, you are mistaken.
15 posted on 11/28/2001 7:05:56 AM by dead
OK. Someone in the admin running an agency broke the law, shouldn’t someone go to jail? Or is that only when a Repub is Prez?
regarding the secret court - (note the Eff.org page comes up slowly) Link below to wikipedia source
Confirmed: The NSA is Spying on Millions of Americans
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/06/confirmed-nsa-spying-millions-americans
Excerpt:
Today, the Guardian newspaper confirmed what EFF (and many others) have long claimed: the NSA is conducting widespread, untargeted, domestic surveillance on millions of Americans. This revelation should end, once and for all, the government’s long-discredited secrecy claims about its dragnet domestic surveillance programs. It should spur Congress and the American people to make the President finally tell the truth about the government’s spying on innocent Americans.
In a report by Glenn Greenwald, the paper published an order from the “Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court” (or FISC) that directs Verizon to provide “on an ongoing daily basis” all call records for any call “wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls” and any call made “between the United States and abroad.”
US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Foreign_Intelligence_Surveillance_Court
I would give them the choice, release the info or it’s the death penalty. They’ve committed a heinous crime against the People of America, they can come clean or they need to face capital punishment.
What the government spying is essentially amounts to a volation of our 4th Amendment rights.
If the government is afraid of what "we, the people" are saying, emailing or texting, maybe they should re-think not enforcing our immigration laws!
I'm just sayin'.
I had no idea I was that smart twelve years ago. I thought it was a more recent development!
As I remember back in the day, you and many Freepers had concerns that if and when under a Dem administration take over, they would abuse the powers under the Patriot Act and the newly formed Department of Homeland Security. They turned out to be correct.
Obviously, you are deadly prescient.
Once again, events have proven that elections have consequences.
If we don't elect trustworthy Presidents, they're going to abuse their power. And, if they're a liberal Democrat, it really doesn't make any difference what the law might be -- they'll subvert it.
I should have given you notice I was going to repost yours from 12 years ago—but
Reading through comments on leftist sites, a common theme is “FR and tea-baggers were all for the Patriot Act when it first came out”
And I did not recall it being that way at all.
So I went back in time, and found that many here including you, dead, voiced strong dissent with the Bush administration regarding the Patriot Act.
So I posted yours.
Which is a great post.
FReegards.
There were dozens if not hundreds of freepers who permanently left FR after fights over the passage of the PATRIOT ACT,
hyper-nationalistic jingoism at the time swept over the nation, and we’ll be suffering under this oppression for a long long time cause of it.
It was the Bush admin that abused the writing, passage and implementation of the Patriot Act.
Bush was not, was never trustworthy, on this issue. The power structure in charge of Patriot Act and FISA and Echelon and other programs bureaucracies are APOLITICAL.
Every time you try to create and/or score a political point over this tragedy you are being used as a pawn by the power structure. You are doing their bidding.
Break through the false dichotomy, your allies in this final struggle for civil liberties will span most of the ideological spectrums, don’t think supporting one snake tongued politician over another is going to do anything but further the oppression of the people by the intelligence community.
A lot of us saw the Patriot Act as a vehicle for government overreach, or worse. I’m sorry you were correct.
sfl
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