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Federal Judge Orders End to Warrantless Wiretapping - New York Times
by Decius at 3:53 pm EDT, Aug 17, 2006 |
“Consequently, the court finds defendants’ arguments that they cannot defend this case without the use of classified information to be disingenuous and without merit,” she wrote.
NYT article linked for brevity. Full decision here. The decision basically follows the contours of the open letter to Congress from prominent legal scholars from February. Some favorite quotes: All of the above Congressional concessions to Executive need and to the exigencies 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. The President of the United States is himself created by that same Constitution.
Basically she is saying that FISA balances Article II and Amendment 4, and the President's argument that Article II makes FISA unconstitutional, or, at least, ignorable, disregards Amendment 4, and thus is obviously incorrect. I also like this: As Justice Warren wrote in U.S. v. Robel, 389 U.S. 258 (1967): Implicit in the term ‘national defense’ is the notion of defending
those values and ideas which set this Nation apart. . . . It would
indeed be ironic if, in the name of national defense, we would
sanction the subversion of . . . those liberties . . . which makes the defense of the Nation worthwhile. Id. at 264.
Perhaps this point of view is now considered "liberal." Conservatives tend to define the republic in personal identity terms rather then in terms of the system it implements. |
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RE: Federal Judge Orders End to Warrantless Wiretapping - New York Times
by ubernoir at 9:39 pm EDT, Aug 17, 2006 |
I also like “Implicit in the term ‘national defense’ is the notion of defending those values and ideas which set this nation apart.”
i'm not quite sure, as an englishman, they set America apart but I do believe that certain values and liberties are fundamental and define western civilisation
if western or even American hegemony has any value then it is that at its root there are certain core liberties
we are defending real people, real lives, thinking, feeling, hoping, loving but also, inexorably, a political philosophy where the emphasis is on freedom, where we "may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands"
your founders tried to enshrine and define these liberties in the core documents of the US state and I believe globally we need to participate in an ongoing discourse about what those liberties are, what they mean and how we enact them globally not as American political, military or economic dominance but as a philosophical and politial consensus to best enable humanity for myself I love "we hold these truths to be self evident" alas so often even in "the home of the brave" they are not |
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Federal Judge Orders End to Warrantless Wiretapping - New York Times
by Shannon at 4:34 pm EDT, Aug 17, 2006 |
“Consequently, the court finds defendants’ arguments that they cannot defend this case without the use of classified information to be disingenuous and without merit,” she wrote.
NYT article linked for brevity. Full decision here. |
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