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Judge Rules Bush’s Warrantless Wiretapping Unconstitutional- Congress to Impeach Immediately?

by Open-Publishing - Thursday 17 August 2006
2 comments

Justice Governments USA

DETROIT Aug 17, 2006 (AP)- A federal judge ruled Thursday that the government’s warrantless wiretapping program is unconstitutional and ordered an immediate halt to it.

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 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 secretly listening to conversations between people in the U.S. and people 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 had already publicly revealed enough information about the program for Taylor to rule on the case.

"By holding that even the president is not above the law, the court has done its duty," said Ann Beeson, the ACLU’s associate legal director and the lead attorney for the plaintiffs.

The NSA had no immediate comment on the ruling.

Taylor dismissed a separate claim by the ACLU over data-mining of phone records by the NSA. She said not enough had been publicly revealed about that program to support the claim and further litigation could jeopardize state secrets.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=2325189

Forum posts

  • This is great, but there is no injunction against the complicit corporations like ATT, Verizon, and all their evil colleagues who collude with illeagal wiretaps.

    Only the NSA is injoined from participation. Hopefully, this ruling will be upheld on appeal in the Circuit Court as the SCOTUS will probably play ball with Bush and his Christofascist cabal

  • It’s very disconcerting to see that, apparently, Ms. Diggs hasn’t yet been bought off by those patriotic individuals protecting American interests so well. How did that happen? Was her name left off of Rove’s list of enemies? How is it that, what shall we call her, an anachronistic crank (?), still holds such a valuable seat when America needs all the right wing forces it can gather to fight the 10,000 or so genuine card carrying al Queda "terrorists" - not phonies who claim affiliation for their rad cred?

    Now how are we going to catch that ragtag group of rebels? First the New York Times reveals that their funds are monitored and now this. Why not just invite a Trojan Horse into the White House so our dearly beloved president would be threatened? C’mon. When is America going to wake up?

    Trading what’s left of our civil liberties is the least we can do in order to capture and illegally incarcerate, and occasionally torture, a few hundred suspects so they don’t ravage our cities with their horrid toxins. Really! There’s no debate here.