NSA eavesdropping program "unconstitutional" -- More
Contributed by Bill Faith
See previous: NSA eavesdropping program ruled unconstitutional
Ideologue Leftist Judge Rules NSA Program Unconstitutional
Patterico
As I predicted last month, the NSA’s controversial surveillance program has been ruled unconstitutional by Judge Anna Diggs Taylor, an ideologue Carter-appointed judge who has a documented history of bending the rules to obtain the leftist result.
As I reminded readers last month, Taylor once engaged in a highly unusual attempt to take the Michigan affirmative action case from a conservative judge: [...]
Based on this history, I predicted in my earlier post that Judge Taylor would rule the NSA program unconstitutional. If Judge Taylor was willing to bend the rules to promote affirmative action, why not twist the law in order to rule unconstitutional a significant Bush anti-terror program?
[Read on.]
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Analysis: The NSA wiretapping decision
Allahpundit
You want the knee-jerk version or the non-knee-jerk version?
Non-knee-jerk. I never thought I’d utter these words, but here they are: make sure you read the section on “standing.”
I’m not necessarily endorsing it, mind you. Just “airing” it.
(Slightly) knee-jerk. ...
[Read on.]
*** Anna Katherine Diggs Deep
Dafydd ab Hugh
"The game is afoot," as Sherlock Holmes said. (Oh yes he did; in "the Adventure of the Abbey Grange," for example.)
The first federal judge has struck down President Bush's NSA al-Qaeda intercept program as an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment. Anna Katherine Johnston Diggs Taylor ruled for the plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union: 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, monitoring phone calls and e-mails between people in the U.S. and people in other countries when a link to terrorism is suspected.
I can only suppose that the ACLU's argument is similar to the well-known constitutional doctrine that police may not tail a reporter they believe may be meeting with a wanted serial killer for for purpose of writing a book about him, as the police action might make it more difficult in future for that reporter to arrange interviews with other wanted felons.
The White House reacted quickly and predictably. Tony Snow said: "United States intelligence officials have confirmed that the program has helped stop terrorist attacks and saved American lives," he said. "The program is carefully administered and only targets international phone calls coming into or out of the United States where one of the parties on the call is a suspected al-Qaida or affiliated terrorist."
The ACLU reacted quickly and predictably. Anthony Romero said: [...]
[Read on.]
*** Where's the beef?
Paul Mirengoff
John, who is on vacation, has delegated to Scott and me the task of "dissecting" the district court opinion that strikes down the NSA's intercept program as unconstitutional. In a sense, however, there isn't much to dissect. The opinion is almost devoid of analysis on the key constitutional provisions it relies upon (the court essentially ducks the issue of whether the intercept program is consistent with FISA and whether the president has the inherent power to authorize the intercepts; it reasons that the Constitution trumps the statute and the president lacks the inherent power to violate specific constitutional provisions). It is part of my job as a litigator (and has been for more than 30 years) to read and understand judicial opinions. Off hand, I cannot recall reading an opinion as conclusory and content free as the portions of this opinion that pertain to the Constitution.
[...]
One begins to note some circularity here. The intercept program violates the Fourth Amendment because (I guess) it was implemented without regard to FISA. It violates the First Amendment (I guess) because it violates the Fourth Amendment. And we don't really have to analyze whether the program can be reconciled with FISA because it violates the First and Fourth Amendments.
[Read the whole thing.]
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Confederate Yankee: A Blip
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