On Tue, 22 Aug 2006 06:08:04 GMT, The Demon Prince of Absurdity
<absurd_number_of_nicks@hell.corn> wrote:
And I'll bring more
Federal judge orders end to wiretap program
Justice Department appeals ruling; White House strongly opposes move
Aug. 17: A federal judge ruled the government’s wiretapping program is
unconstitutional.
NBC’s Rosiland Jordan reports.
MSNBC News Services
Updated: 3:52 p.m. ET Aug 17, 2006
DETROIT - A federal judge ruled Thursday that the government’s warrantless
wiretapping program is unconstitutional and ordered an immediate halt to it.
The White House said it “couldn't disagree” more with the ruling.
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 as well as the separation of powers
enshrined in the Constitution.
“Plaintiffs have prevailed, and the public interest is clear, in this
matter. It is the upholding of our Constitution,” Taylor wrote in her
43-page opinion.
The U.S. Justice Department appealed the ruling and issued a statement
saying the program is “an essential tool for the intelligence community in
the war on terror.”
“In the ongoing conflict with al-Qaida and its allies, the president has the
primary duty under the Constitution to protect the American people,” the
department said. “The Constitution gives the president the full authority
necessary to carry out that solemn duty, and we believe the program is
lawful and protects civil liberties.”
White House spokesman Tony Snow said the Bush administration's “Terrorist
Surveillance Program” is “firmly grounded in law and regularly reviewed to
make sure steps are taken to protect civil liberties.”
The ruling won't take immediate effect so Taylor can hear a Justice
Department request for a stay pending its appeal.
‘Checks and balances’
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 wiretapping conversations
between people in the U.S. and those 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.
The ACLU said the state-secrets argument was irrelevant because the Bush
administration already had publicly revealed enough information about the
program for Taylor to rule.
“At its core, today’s ruling addresses the abuse of presidential power and
reaffirms the system of checks and balances that’s necessary to our
democracy,” ACLU executive director Anthony Romero told reporters after the
ruling.
He called the opinion “another nail in the coffin in the Bush
administration’s legal strategy in the war on terror.”
One ruling against ACLU
While siding with the ACLU on the wiretapping issue, Taylor dismissed a
separate claim by the group over NSA data-mining of phone records. She said
not enough had been publicly revealed about that program to support the
claim and further litigation would jeopardize state secrets.
The lawsuit alleged that the NSA “uses artificial intelligence aids to
search for keywords and analyze patterns in millions of communications at
any given time.” Multiple lawsuits have been filed related to data-mining
against phone companies, accusing them of improperly turning over records to
the NSA.
However, the data-mining was only a small part of the Detroit suit, said Ann
Beeson, the ACLU’s associate legal director and the lead attorney on the
case.
Beeson predicted the government would appeal the wiretapping ruling and
request that the order to halt the program be postponed while the case makes
its way through the system. She said the ACLU had not yet decided whether it
would oppose such a postponement.
© 2006 MSNBC Interactive
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14393611/
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