Judge orders halt to NSA wiretap program
Thu Aug 17, 2006 12:45pm ET173DETROIT (Reuters) – A federal judge in Detroit on Thursday ordered the Bush administration to halt the National Security Agency’s program of domestic eavesdropping, saying it violated the U.S. Constitution.
Judge Anna Diggs Taylor said the controversial practice of warrantless wiretapping known as the “Terrorist Surveillance Program” violated free speech rights, protections against unreasonable searches and the constitutional check on the power of the presidency. (Reuters story and slightly more animated report from the Free Speech Coalition.)
I just reviewed a list of current Supreme Court justices, and since I don’t see Judge Taylor’s name included there I can only surmise that this war isn’t over yet. But it’s nice to win the occasional skirmish.
As I’ve noted before, if we trash our own liberties in the quest for “security,” then the terrorists have already won. Worse, if we’re suckered into doing so by a fear-mongering government that’s bent only on expanding the power of the ruling cabal, we’re too stupid to deserve democracy.
Let freedom ring, I always say…
:xpost:
The ruling has a couple of wonderful bits of discreet chewing-out in it. My favorite:
We must first note that the Office of the Chief Executive has itself been created, with its powers, by the Constitution. There are no hereditary Kings in America and no power not created by the Constitution. So all “inherent power” must derive from that Constitution.
Judge Taylor’s Supreme Court aspirations are clearly banking on a Democrat victory in 2008, huh? 🙂
hmmmmmm. now if we could just apply this ruling to e-mail. at home or in the workplace.
Colour Me Paranoid
The thing that cranks up my PTSD is the I think not unreasonable fear that Los Bushanistas will ‘try to pull something‘ to suspend the Mid-Terms and impose Martial Law. What gives me some hope is that they may have lost the military and it seems that a significant portion of The Oligarchy itself has turned against them. But there is a whiff of true madness about them these days. They know if the Dems take The House, there will Tribunals. If they take The Senate as well, there will be Consequence. 83 days and counting. Oy, my noives.
~M~
Re: Colour Me Paranoid
Yeah, one time I said to my friend Michael that “well at least he can only be elected one more time.” Not verbatim, but his response was something on the lines of yeah, assuming there are any more elections at all.
But I was rather glad to see this ruling. It was like a small breath of fresh air while standing in the middle of a landfil the size of Wyoming.
Re: Colour Me Paranoid
I’ll be tickled if we can just take one wing of the Congress away from them. I’ve always felt like our particular breed of government
worked bestdid the least damage when you had the power divvied up a bit.Has the sliming of that judge started yet?
Haven’t heard anything except that she captained a Swift Boat in Vietnam.