Thursday, August 17, 2006

Say what?!?

OK, today's big news, the judge in Michigan ruled that the NSA's warrantless wiretapping is illegal. But one particular line jumped out at me here (emphasis added):

All of the above Congressional concessions to Executive need and to the exegencies of our present situation as a people, however, have been futile. The wiretapping program here in litigation has undisputedly been continued for at least five years, it has undisputedly been implemented without regard to FISA and of course the more stringent standards of Title III, and obviously in violation of the Fourth Amendment.

Has this administration been using warrantless wiretaps before 9/11 even happened? If so, then two questions come immediately to mind: What was the justification for it at the time, and how useful do they seem to be if they couldn't stop any hypothetical people "determined to strike U.S." with the warrantless wiretaps?

1 comment:

Samurai Sam said...

Great catch! If our media had any committment left whatsoever towards speaking truth to power, this would be running on every major media outlet. How much more evidence do we need that this is just Nixon, Part Deux (times 10!)

(As a funny aside, Judge Diggs Taylor really needs to spell check her legal opinions. Don't they give federal district judges clerks?)