Text 21996, 109 rader
Skriven 2006-08-18 09:19:02 av John Hull (1:123/789.0)
  Kommentar till text 21994 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: Ruling
==============
Jeff Binkley -> All wrote:
 JB> Another liberal activist judge that wa judge shopped by he ACLU.  This
 JB> will get over turned but we need more of these so that the public can
 JB> see what the ACLU and the activist judiciary are up to.


Judge Napolitano on Fox said last night that it will probably be overturned on
appeal, but that the administration could've done a better job of handling this
one and likely wouldn't have to go to these efforts had they done so.



 JB> ======================================

 JB> http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060817/D8JIEQC00.html

 JB> Judge Nixes Warrantless Surveillance


 JB>  Email this Story

 JB> Aug 17, 6:26 PM (ET)

 JB> By SARAH KARUSH

 JB> DETROIT (AP) - A federal judge ruled Thursday that the government's
 JB> warrantless surveillance program is unconstitutional and ordered an
 JB> immediate end to it.

 JB> U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit became the first judge
 JB> to strike down the National Security Agency's program, which she says
 JB> violates the rights to free speech and privacy, as well as the
 JB> separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution.

 JB> "Plaintiffs have prevailed, and the public interest is clear, in this
 JB> matter. It is the upholding of our Constitution," Taylor wrote in her 43-
 JB> page opinion.

 JB> The Justice Department said it is appealing the ruling.

 JB> "We're going to do everything we can do in the courts to allow this
 JB> program to continue," Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said at a news
 JB> conference in Washington.

 JB> Gonzales maintained that the program is legal and useful.

 JB> ""We've had numerous statements by leaders of the intelligence community
 JB> about the effectiveness of the program in protecting America," he said.

 JB> White House press secretary Tony Snow said the Bush administration
 JB> "couldn't disagree more with this ruling."

 JB> "The program is carefully administered and only targets international
 JB> phone calls coming into or out of the United States where one of the
 JB> parties on the call is a suspected al-Qaida or affiliated terrorist,"
 JB> Snow said.

 JB> The ruling won't take immediate effect so Taylor can hear a Justice
 JB> request for a stay pending its appeal. A hearing on the motion was set
 JB> for Sept. 7, Snow said.

 JB> The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on behalf of
 JB> journalists, scholars and lawyers who say the program has made it
 JB> difficult for them to do their jobs. They believe many of their overseas
 JB> contacts are likely targets of the program, monitoring phone calls and e-
 JB> mails between people in the U.S. and people in other countries when a
 JB> link to terrorism is suspected.

 JB> The government argued that the program is well within the president's
 JB> authority, but said proving that would require revealing state secrets.

 JB> The ACLU said the state-secrets argument was irrelevant because the Bush
 JB> administration already had publicly revealed enough information about
 JB> the program for Taylor to rule.

 JB> "At its core, today's ruling addresses the abuse of presidential power
 JB> and reaffirms the system of checks and balances that's necessary to our
 JB> democracy," ACLU executive director Anthony Romero told reporters after
 JB> the ruling.

 JB> He called the opinion "another nail in the coffin in the Bush
 JB> administration's legal strategy in the war on terror."

 JB> While siding with the ACLU on the surveillance issue, Taylor dismissed a
 JB> separate claim by the group over NSA data-mining of phone records. She
 JB> said that not enough had been publicly revealed about that program to
 JB> support the claim and that further litigation would jeopardize state
 JB> secrets.

 JB> The lawsuit alleged that the NSA "uses artificial intelligence aids to
 JB> search for keywords and analyze patterns in millions of communications
 JB> at any given time." Lawsuits have been filed over data-mining against
 JB> phone companies, accusing them of improperly turning over records to the
 JB> NSA.

 JB> However, the data-mining was only a small part of the Detroit suit, said
 JB> Ann Beeson, the ACLU's associate legal director and the lead attorney on
 JB> the case.

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

 JB> --- PCBoard (R) v15.3/M 10
 JB>  * Origin:  (1:226/600)

--- Thunderbird 1.5.0.5 (Windows/20060719)
 * Origin:  (1:123/789.0)