Federal Judge Orders End to Warrantless Wiretapping

[AGBF]

From, "The New York Times":

"WASHINGTON, Aug. 17 — A federal judge in Detroit ruled today that the Bush administration’s eavesdropping program is illegal and unconstitutional, and she ordered that it cease at once.

District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor found that President Bush exceeded his proper authority and that the eavesdropping without warrants violated the First and Fourth Amendment protections of free speech and privacy.

'It was never the intent of the Framers to give the president such unfettered control, particularly where his actions blatantly disregard the parameters clearly enumerated in the Bill of Rights,' she wrote, in a decision that the White House and Justice Department said they would fight to overturn. A hearing will be held before Judge Taylor on Sept. 7, and her decision will not be enforced in the meantime pending the government’s appeal."

 

[movie zombie]

further quotes:

Judge Anna Diggs Taylor has given us a clear interpretation of the Constitution and the limits of executive power:
“We must first note that the Office of the Chief Executive has itself been created, with its powers, by the Constitution. There are no hereditary Kings in America and no powers not created by the Constitution. So all ‘inherent powers’ must derive from that Constitution.”
Upholding the importance of the Bill of Rights:
“It was never the intent of the Framers to give the president such unfettered control, particularly where his actions blatantly disregard the parameters clearly enumerated in the Bill of Rights.”
Making clear the importance of a Separation of Powers:
"Our constitution was drafted by founders and ratified by a people who still held in vivid memory the image of King George III and his General Warrants. The concept that each form of governmental power should be separated was a well-developed one. James Madison wrote that: ''The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.''"
Rejecting the interpretation that the Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) grants the President power to wiretap at will:
"The AUMF resolution, if indeed it is construed as replacing FISA, gives no support to Defendants here. Even if that Resolution superceded all other statutory law, Defendants have violated the Constitutional rights of their citizens including the First Amendment, Fourth Amendment and the Separation of Powers doctrine."
Judge Diggs Taylor makes it clear that the President has violated FISA:
"In this case, the President has acted, undisputedly, as FISA forbids. FISA is the expressed statutory policy of our Congress. The presidential power, therefore, was exercised at its lowest ebb and cannot be sustained."
She states that the President violated the First and Fourth Amendments:
"The President of the United States, a creature of the same Constitution which gave us these Amendments, has undisputedly violated the Fourth in failing to procure judicial orders as required by FISA, and accordingly has violated the First Amendment Rights of these Plaintiffs as well."


movie zombie

ps Judge Anna Diggs Taylor’s Ruling: http://fl1.findlaw.com/news.findlaw.com/nytimes/docs/nsa/aclunsa81706opn.pdf page 40 is a fun read............

 

[smitcompton]

Tyranny

What have they done to my country,
Those protectors in high places?
What have they done to my country,
Those jurists in black robes?
Came in daylight with stealth
and plunged us into an abyss.
Vision dimmed, dreams lost, hope forsaken
I fear, I smell the first whiff of Tyranny



Where are they going in my country?
Going to the left, going to the right,
Where are they going in my country?
Whispering secrets in corridors
Ever the concentric circle winds
From public orations of lies
To honor dispossessed, reputation in ruins
I fear, I smell the second whiff of tyranny

 

[strmrdr]

bout time but it will take 5 years to settle and there is no injunction in the mean time.

 

[smitcompton]

What are they saying in my country,
The erudite elite of the fourth estate?
What are they saying in my country
The moral leaders looking for right?
We listen for the words, but hear not,
Pursue the one percent solution, Dick says,
Circumventing discourse supersedes all
I fear, I smell the third whiff of tyranny



Where are the citizens of my country
Warriors bold, heros dead, woman wailing?
Where are the citizens of my country,
Freemen inert, spies everywhere beget
Laws broken, pledges twisted, decisions
Postponed until a cry to rise-up rushes in
Now knowing power corrupts old men
I fear, ere the stench of tyranny is everywhere