Our system, many seem to forget, is a marvel of checks and balances. Perhaps it was a reflection of the growing Industrial Revolution where machines were becoming more functional. The Framers of the Constitution wrote into their version of levers and pulleys, buttons and bells and whistles. The President has great, administrative power. The Congress speaks for the people (and theoretically, serve as an ear for their needs) and the Judiciary watches over everything so that no one goes off on wild and dangerous tangents – especially in times of stress.
In the Federal District Court of Eastern Michigan, Judge Anna Diggs Taylor just wrote the opinion in the case of the AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION; AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDATION; AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF MICHIGAN; COUNCIL ON AMERICAN-ISLAMIC RELATIONS; COUNCIL ON AMERICAN ISLAMIC RELATIONS MICHIGAN; GREENPEACE, INC.; NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CRIMINAL DEFENSE LAWYERS; JAMES BAMFORD; LARRY DIAMOND; CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS; TARA MCKELVEY; and BARNETT R. RUBIN
versus
A PDF download of the entire case is available and fascinating. The case number is 06-10204
Judge Anna Diggs Taylor is 73 and was the first African-American woman to serve on the District Court in the Michigan district, the first to be chief federal judge. She attended Barnard and Yale Law School. She is not a judicial force to be ignored.
She begins the opinion identifying the action as "a challenge" to a secret organization in the government she will call TSP, which was "undoubtedly" set up by the N.S.A. (the National Security Administration) by the year 2002, which "... intercepts without benefit of warrant or other judicial approval, prior or subsequent, the international telephone and internet communications of numerous persons and organizations...", and which continues into the present day. The secret government group was "... authorized by the President’s secret order during 2002 and reauthorized at least thirty times since."
The plaintiffs are groups and individuals who regularly communicate with others on an international basis by telephone and Internet "... for various uncontestedly legitimate reasons including journalism, the practice of law, and scholarship." These people have reason to think the U.S. government is routinely intercepting their private communications. They are, by the government's admission, "U.S. persons".
We may not be surprised to learn the government's defense was primarily based on "national security" and on the concept of "state's secrets privilege". These concepts have been upheld often since the Civil War (the Southerners' "War Between The States") in a landmark case (Totten v. United States), where Totten sued the government to pay for spy services he did for them during the War. The courts ruled for the government because "The secrecy which such contracts impose precludes any action for their enforcement." This rule kept people from suing for defective war planes in WWII and for Viet Nam era suits against the C.I.A. because "... It is self-evident that the disclosures sought here pose a “reasonable danger” to the diplomatic and military interests of the United States."
Article Author: Howard Dratch
Howard writes on science, books, movies and news for Blogcritics and on his own blogs from the border of North and Central America.
Article comments
1 - Bob Jones
Interesting, I thought the whole wire tapping was about "the right the of people to be secure".
If Journalists are freely talking with terrorists, why don't they just give a little piece of paper with the details to Bush? Or send a coded message to Tony Snow during a press conference?
If only the whole media was run by Rupert Murdoch, he'd have handed all details over to Mr Bush - although he'd probably charge for them ;)
2 - pleasexcusetheinteruption12
An excellent summary of the decision, too bad no one had the attention span to read it.
Interesting to note, however, that in the opinion of legal scholars (and me) the ruling does read a little too inflamatory and angry compared to most Supreme Court rulings.