US : Warrantless surveillance - 1 step forward, 2 steps back

Lord Patel on - Thursday, August 17
Black Woman Federal Judge Orders Halt to NSA Wiretapping - but it won't happen until Sept 7th at earliest.

Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit, Mich. wrote in a strongly-worded 43-page opinion (in a case broguht by the The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)) that the NSA wiretapping program violates privacy and free-speech rights and the constitutional separation of powers between the three branches of government. She also found that it violates a 1978 law (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)) set up to oversee clandestine surveillance.

Well, today after the Justice Department has appealed her decision she allowed the government on Thursday to continue the program another week while it seeks a further postponement from an appeals court.

The Justice Department asked Taylor to allow the program to continue until the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issues a final ruling on the legal issues ... which legal opinion sought by my office says could take months. Taylor denied this request. The ACLU argued today against an indefinite stay, but did not oppose a short-term one.

Justice Department attorney Anthony J. Coppolino argued that a stay was warranted based on Bush's opinion that the program is vital to national security.

"Your injunction, as far as we can see, was the first time in history that foreign surveillance has been enjoined during a time of war," he argued in front of Taylor. "If the surveillance stops, the nation would be at greater risk of a terrorist attack", he argued.

Taylor did however choose to allow the government a 7-day reprieve while it seeks a stay from the appeals court pending a decision on the legality of the surveillance. Taylor made the point to the administration through Coppolino that he had not mentioned any "attempt at compliance" in his arguments.

Taylor told Coppolino she could not grant the indefinite stay because "there is no likelihood" that her ruling will be overturned. She said granting it would allow "irreparable harm" to continue against the plaintiffs, a group of journalists, scholars and lawyers who believe their overseas contacts are likely targets of the surveillance.

The ACLU argued Thursday against an indefinite stay, but did not oppose a short-term one.

MAKING WARRANTLESS SURVEILLANCE LEGAL

S.3931, (Details here)the "National Security Surveillance Act," HAS BEEN BROUGHT BY Vice-President Dick Cheney and Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) AMD SEEKS TO put into law the warrantless surveillance the administration has admitted to conducting. The bill would permit secret, warrantless electronic surveillance of Americans’ phone conversations, e-mails and stored electronic communication records without individualized judicial review. (i.e overthrow FISA)

You object to calling Specter and Arsehole ? Here is part of what he said introducing the Bill...

On the one hand, we are a Nation at war. On September 11 we suffered
the worst attack on civilians in our country's history by an enemy like
none we had faced before. The more we learn about this enemy, the more
we learn about a cruel and brutal opponent who will stop at nothing to
terrorize and harm our country.....

On the other hand, we are a Nation that believes in the rule of law.
We are a people that hold dear the rights and liberties enshrined in
our Constitution.

Senators Larry Craig (R-ID), John Sununu (R-NH) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) have today dropped their objections and now support the Bill. This is a result of Senator Arlen"One Bullet" Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican, and arsehole, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, said that in recent negotiations, the White House had agreed to delete language from the bill that critics said would have implicitly acknowledged the president’s constitutional authority to order wiretapping without a warrant. Critics say however that the language fudges the meaning of what is "electronic surveillance" and allows wriggle room for Presidentially authorised wiretapping without judicial authority.

This bill is of course designed to nullify anything that the Supreme Court in Michigan decides in limiting the powers of the President / Commander in Chief of a nation said to be at war.

Pic John Negroponte at NSA.