(1) So the Justice Department has been doing its job by looking into the (il)legalities of the NSA wiretapping. In fact, the DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility has specifically been looking into it. So far, so good. Until…. Security issue kills domestic spying inquiry NSA won’t grant Justice Department lawyers required security clearance The government has abruptly ended an inquiry … Read More
Pulitzer Prizes
… awarded to James Risen and Eric Lichtblau of The New York Times for their carefully sourced stories on secret domestic eavesdropping that stirred a national debate on the boundary line between fighting terrorism and protecting civil liberty. No Pulitzer Prize for Drama this year.
Well, Well, Well
It’s interesting to see who the Pentagon sees as the true enemy: A high-ranking Pentagon official has been snooping around Hillary and Bill Clinton’s personal financial records, The Post has learned. The Defense Department big shot recently scoured Sen. Clinton personal financial filings – which are required by Senate rules and publicly available. The records contain information about her investments … Read More
Greenwald On Orrin Hatch
The whole post is worth a read, but I like Glenn Greenwald’s views about Sen. Orrin Hatch: This seems to be an accurate summary of the evolution of Sen. Hatch’s views of constitutional law: (1) The Congress has the right to restrict the President’s eavesdropping activities, and to make certain eavesdropping activities a criminal offense punishable by up to five … Read More
Let’s Help John Out
Poor John Hindrocket. Hampered by his own desire to be right, he can’t see the plain evidence in front of his face. Here’s what he writes in his post "Someone’s Misreporting This Story": Yesterday, five former judges of the FISA court testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the National Security Agency’s international terrorist surveillance program. Some observers have alleged … Read More
SCOTUS Limits Warrantless Searches
One thing that struck me in law school, and to this day, is how often the U.S. Supreme Court visits the issues of searches under the Fourth Amendment. Seriously. Every year they take a couple of these cases, it seems. I don’t even pay attention any more. But this morning, the Court addressed an interesting issue: consent searches. Consent searches … Read More
Book Plug
With millions of bloggers now out there, it’s hard to make a name for oneself. But that’s what First Amendment lawyer Glenn Greenwald did when he exploded on the blogosphere in November last year, writing mostly about the NSA wiretapping scandel. Since then, his site has become a must-read for many on the left and right, and includes some original … Read More
First Poll On Censure
A plurality of Americans support it. Specifically, 46 percent of Americans (48 percent of voters) support Sen. Russ Feingold’s censure resolution, while 44 percent (43 percent of voters) oppose the idea. Which begs the question: when Russ Feingold offered the resolution, why did Senate Democrats run away from it like he just lit a bomb?
The Case For Censure
Sen. Feingold raised the notion of a Bush censure this week on The Week With George Stephonoplous, and the idea is already gaining much support. Georgia10 at Daily Kos makes the case: Five minutes is all it takes, really. Less, if you’re not that chatty. In five minutes, you can speak up for the rule of the law. In five … Read More
The First Court Ruling On NSA Wiretapping
A small item, perhaps, but the first of many likely court rulings to come (PDF format). The ACLU and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, among others, sought expedited discovery of DOJ/NSA documents relating to the domestic surveillance program. They sought several items under the Freedom of Information Act, including documents relating to: (1) an audit of NSA domestic surveillance activities; … Read More
George Will On NSA Wiretapping
I like it when he’s right: The next time a president asks Congress to pass something akin to what Congress passed on Sept. 14, 2001 — the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) — the resulting legislation might be longer than Proust’s "Remembrance of Things Past." Congress, remembering what is happening today, might stipulate all the statutes and constitutional … Read More
GOP Blocks Investigation Of Spying Program
Rep. John Conyers has a blog post up at Daily Kos, explaining what happened, and providing a little "inside baseball".
ANOTHER NSA Program?!?
UPI reports that former NSA employee Russell Tice, one of the whistleblowers of the NSA surveillance program, is now saying that there is another "more wide-ranging program" beyond the one that’s been so much in the news: A former NSA employee said Tuesday there is another ongoing top-secret surveillance program that might have violated millions of Americans’ Constitutional rights. Russell … Read More
The Wiretapping Leak Does NOT Help al Qaeda
Larry Johnson, a former CIA officer and former instructor for the U.S. State Department’s Anti-Terrorism Training Program explains why: FACT 1: [NY Times reporter James] Risen did not reveal how the domestic electronic surveillance was being conducted. He may know specifically what they are doing, but he did not and has not disclosed the methodology used. What was disclosed is … Read More
FISA Court Flashback
Gotta love the commenters at Free Republic. Via Glenn Greenwald, a hilarious 2000 Free Republic article on the dire threat to American civil liberties posed by Bill Clinton’s use of "a secret court" that has "authorized all but one of over 7,500 requests to spy in the name of National Security." The court in question is, of course, the FISA … Read More