Sadly, I just don’t have time to do this story in the manner it deserves. I’m preparing for a trip, and won’t have time to completely cover this until returning from travel. But the story is too important to let wait until then.
Overturning a lower court decision that President Bush’s unlawful wiretap authorization after the 9/11 attacks, a U.S. appeals court has ordered the dismissal of a lawsuit against the NSA for wiretapping. The simple reason is the court stated that since none of the plaintiffs could prove their 4th amendment rights had been violated by the wiretaps.
The appeals court ruled that the plaintiffs didn’t prove they had been affected by the NSA’s Terrorist Surveillance Program, authorized by President Bush in 2002. The program allowed the NSA to monitor communications between U.S. residents and people in other countries with suspected ties to the terrorist group al-Qaeda.
The plaintiffs argued, among other things, that the program violated the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment, protecting U.S. citizens against unreasonable search and seizure. But none of the plaintiffs could prove their Fourth Amendment rights had been violated, wrote Appeals Court Judge Alice Batchelder.
“The plaintiffs cannot show they have been or will be subject to surveillance personally,” Batchelder wrote.
Well, here’s the kicker. Because the program and all information collected is classified, no one can EVER prove their 4th amendment rights have been violated. Quite literally, the court has ruled that any program initiated by a President and stated to be classified complete protects the government from all legal repercussions. Think about this carefully before you dismiss it. That means, for instance, that if Hillary were to win the election next year (please dear ${diety} no, but just suppose) and she determined she needed to eavesdrop on political opposition. If she were to start doing this and claim it was classified, no one could bring any legal weight against her.
If any President does anything in violation of current law but declares all information about it to be classified, no one can do anything about it if this ruling stands. This is an insanely dangerous ruling, and it sets America up for very bad executive branch programs in the future. It’s especially sad to me that the ACLU actually takes on a case that they should, and because they can only speak of the potential damage of the program, it gets thrown out. All the cases judges let the ACLU run through that they win, and one this important gets dismissed? Sad. A pathetic show of judicial ruling.
[tags]US court appears to hate America, Court declares President above the law[/tags]