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
Now look at the particulars. If that’s the set of rulings I recall, the ruling was asinine, conflating conflating monitoring of international traffic - over which no US court had authority - with monitoring of US-US communications..
“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.”
Yup...that’s the idiocy. Conflating the CinC with the Attorney General.