ACLU Files Suit Against Warrantless Wiretapping
In what was totally predictable, the ACLU has filed suit “in two cities Tuesday seeking to block President Bush’s domestic eavesdropping program, arguing the electronic surveillance of American citizens was unconstitutional.” Here’s more information on the lawsuits:
The U.S. District Court lawsuits were filed in New York by the Center for Constitutional Rights and in Detroit by the American Civil Liberties Union. The New York suit, filed on behalf of the center and individuals, names President Bush, the head of the National Security Agency, and the heads of the other major security agencies, challenging the NSA’s surveillance of persons within the United States without judicial approval or statutory authorization.
It seeks an injunction that would prohibit the government from conducting surveillance of communications in the United States without warrants. The Detroit suit, which also names the NSA, was filed with the ACLU along with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Greenpeace and several individuals.
I can’t imagine this not eventually making its way to the SCOTUS. I hope that Justice Kennedy will join Justices Alito, Scalia and Thomas and Chief Justice Roberts in finally ruling this operation constitutional.
Frankly, I’m tired of hearing these American haters saying that we can’t defend ourselves from foreign terrorists. What these lawsuits are essentially aimed at is the total undercutting of our ability to defend ourselves from terrorists. Let there be no mistake about this. This isn’t only about civil rights. It never was.
Let’s put something else on the table. During WWII, German spies were executed without habeus corpus. War stories didn’t get printed because the government censored that type of coverage. The notion that we’re the first generation to have our civil rights curtailed in the name of national security DURING WARTIME is pure nonsense.
Think about this: If the rules of habeus corpus and our First Amendment can be suspended in wartime, why can’t we wiretap communications? After all, the Fourth Amendment only forbids UNREASONABLE searches and seizures.
RELATED:
ACLU Compare Illegal Wiretapping of MLK
To NSA Spying On Terror Suspects
UPDATE:
Michelle Malkin has a round-up
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRing
January 17th, 2006 at 8:49 am
how many people died from misdiagnoses last year?
how many died from car wrecks?
just how many died from terrorists attacks last year in the USA?
get some perspective and a little back bone please?
br3n
January 17th, 2006 at 9:05 am
The ACLU protects the rights of AMERICANS — the right to privacy from warrantless government spying. If Bush thinks “somebody’s talking to Al Qaeda,” he only needs to get a FISA warrant (which is issued 99.9% of the time it’s requested) to eavesdrop. He thinks he’s above the law. He’s not.
You’re right that civil liberties have been curtailed many times throughout our history during times of war, but that doesn’t mean that it was either the right thing to do or even beneficial to national security. The Sedition Act of 1798 was the first example of this, and President Jefferson eventually pardoned everyone convicted under it and Congress repaid the fines. Lincoln suspended habeas corpus during the civil war, but the Supreme Court ruled in 1866 that that was unconstitutional, even during wartime. 100,000 people of Japanses ancestry were interned during the 40s to “protect national security.” It wasn’t until the 80s that Reagan issued a formal apology.
I’m afraid this latest Bush-NSA spying program is just the latest in a long history of ridiculous breaches of Constitutional rights in a flawed attempt to “protect” us. It should be stopped immediately.
January 17th, 2006 at 11:53 am
"ACLU Sues to Stop Illegal Spying on Americans, Saying President is Not Above the Law" (with helpful protein wisdom gloss)
From the ACLU Press release:Saying that the Bush administration's illegal spying on Americans must end, the American Civil Liberties Union today filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against the National Security Agency seeking to stop a s…
January 18th, 2006 at 1:37 pm
This is the second time I’ve read that “99.9%” of the time from Scott. I’d question it in relation to the Bush admin since 9/11. Seems to me to get that figure one would have to go back and start counting from the beginning.
This is about Bush and how FISA screws around with him.
If a cop on the beat gets credible information, it only makes sense to see it through. NSA got credible info, but now the libs/Dems/moonbats want to hamstring even that. And from the frequent “surprises” in the NYT, the fewer people who know how the admin is getting that info the better because it seems even judges can’t keep their yaps shut anymore. Go figure.
Just as long as he keeps key congresspeople informed. (That doesn’t include Schumer or Pelosi or Boxer or Tubby - they wouldn’t know how to keep their mouths shut if their lives depended on it, unless of course it involved protecting a Demo prez.)
January 19th, 2006 at 12:25 pm
Carlos:
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/stats/fisa_stats.html
Even if you just count from 2001-2004, the court has approved 5640 requests, and denied 4. So it’s 99.93% to be more precise.
January 28th, 2006 at 1:13 pm
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