Text 2232, 72 rader
Skriven 2006-08-17 14:49:00 av ROSS SAUER (1:123/140)
Ärende: Bush bombs out again...
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Looks like the courts, you know, with all those imaginary "activist 
judges" have told Bush and his goons to knock it off.

Judge Nixes Warrantless Surveillance 

By SARAH KARUSH 

Associated Press Writer

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

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

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

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, which involves wiretapping 
conversations between people in the U.S. and people in other countries.
  
The government argued that the program is well within the president's 
authority, but said proving that would require revealing state secrets.

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

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

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

The NSA had no immediate comment on the ruling.

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

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

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

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

© 2006 The Associated Press

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