No Surprise: ACLU v. NSA Reversed
Friday, July 6th, 2007Last August, I said that Anna Diggs-Taylor’s ruling in the ACLU v. NSA wouldn’t stand. This morning, I was proven right:
A divided U.S. appeals court dismissed a challenge to the Bush administration’s terrorist surveillance program, ruling that the American Civil Liberties Union and others lacked the legal right to sue over the spying.
The 2-1 decision today by the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court ruling that said the eavesdropping without court warrants violated the Constitution and federal law. The appeals panel directed the trial court judge to throw out the case.
At the time of the initial ruling, David Corn made this declaration:
Once again, a court has told Bush that he is not all-powerful. He cannot create military tribunals on his own. He cannot detain American citizens as enemy combatants without affording them some elements of due process. Taylor’s decision will probably be appealed by the Bush administration, and the case will wind its way toward the Supreme Court. But this decision reaffirms, and puts into practice, the bedrock principle that a president’s power does not trump the workings of a republican government, even when it comes to war.
I don’t blame Corn for thumping his chest like that. That’s his right. This ruling essentially said that his taking a victory lap was premature at best. The true message behind Diggs-Taylor’s ruling was that America can’t afford liberal judges if it hopes to vanquish the jihadists. (more…)