Judge nixes warrantless surveillance By SARAH KARUSH, Associated Press Writer
50 minutes ago



DETROIT - A federal judge ruled Thursday that the government's warrantless wiretapping program is unconstitutional and ordered an immediate halt to it.

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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.

Beeson predicted the government would appeal the ruling and request that the order to halt the program be postponed while the case makes its way through the system. She said the ACLU had not yet decided whether it would oppose such a postponement.

warrantless wire tapping

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Why does this judge hate America so much?

The terrorists have obviously already won the heart and mind of this judge.

It was interesting to listen to the US and UK news conferences regarding the capture of the suspected bombing plot. While Bush used the typical "war on terror", "islamo fascists", etc. phrases, the UK language was more like a crime investigation - suspects, investigation, etc.

The Bushies push the war analogy as far as they can to serve a number of purposes. The first to scare everyone into the constant need for war preparation and the vasts amount of money flushed down the Pentagon toilet,

and second, to use it as an excuse to broaden the executive powers under the radar and in unconstitutial ways. Hopefully this is the beginning of some judicial restraint.

FYI: Case in point. Check out Keith Olbermann's report on MSNBC regarding the terror alert game:

http://www.truthout.org/multimedia.htm

If the judge's ruling has taught the Administration one thing, it is that they must keep their illegal activities secret if they are to continue them without judicial review. They are hoping to silence all possible whitleblowers and scare journalists with threat of jail in their efforts to keep their wrong doing under wraps.