US Gov't Can't Be Sued For Warrantless Wiretapping 221
Posted
by
Soulskill
from the consequence-free dept.
from the consequence-free dept.
Wired has an article about a ruling from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals saying the government can't be sued over intercepting phone calls without a warrant. The decision (PDF) vacated an earlier ruling which allowed a case to be brought against the government. The plaintiffs in the case argued that the government had implicitly waived sovereign immunity, but today's ruling points out that it can only be waived explicitly. Judge McKeown wrote, "This case effectively brings to an end the plaintiffs’ ongoing attempts to hold the Executive Branch responsible for intercepting telephone conversations without judicial authorization." The ruling does, however, take time to knock down the government's claim that the case was brought frivolously: "In light of the complex, ever-evolving nature of this litigation, and considering the significant infringement on individual liberties that would occur if the Executive Branch were to disregard congressionally-mandated procedures for obtaining judicial authorization of international wiretaps, the charge of 'game-playing' lobbed by the government is as careless as it is inaccurate. Throughout, the plaintiffs have proposed ways of advancing their lawsuit without jeopardizing national security, ultimately going so far as to disclaim any reliance whatsoever on the Sealed Document. That their suit has ultimately failed does not in any way call into question the integrity with which they pursued it."
so the guvmint has no one to answer to (Score:2, Interesting)
is that the conclusion i'm reading here?
Is Wiretapping Legal Now? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:God DAMN you BOOOSH!!!! (Score:4, Interesting)
Oh, wait a minute. He left office almost 4 years ago....
It's funny you should mention that.
Four years ago, when the President was pushing more Executive power, many were against it. Those people who were against it, were called "UnAmerican" or were accused of wanting to "help the terrorists" or "didn't realize the threats" against our country. Others pointed out the any extra powers that the executive branch will eventually be in the hands of the "other guys" - in this case the Democrats.
No one listened.
People were afraid and there was revenge in the air. John Q. Public was/is more than happy to give the Government more powers because they'll only use it for "good" and NEVER use it against anyone who isn't doing anything "wrong".
As we have seen, power is NEVER given up. The Obama Administration can at anytime give up those extra powers that the previous administration acquired.
They haven't. Nor will they.
And neither will the next Presidential Administration regardless of who gets into office - even if it's Ron Paul.
We as citizens have failed. We are at fault. We let emotion and the desire for revenge cloud our thoughts and we gave away our Freedoms. Sure, we were thrown some bones - like being able to own an assault rifle with big honking magazines increases my freedom - Plah-ease. The government keeps a real close eye on gun purchases. As well as large financial transactions - see OFAC [treasury.gov] - buy a car - even YOU citizen and it's reported to the government (I know it SAYS foreign but it is also used for domestic purchases on EVERYONE. And then there's the government getting information from: ISPs, Cell Phone providers, Medical Information Bureau, VISA, Mastercard, Credit Bureaus, ChoicePoint, Google, etc ... all with just a scary letter. Who needs a Government Database of files on everyone when corporate America does it anyway (scattered bits and pieces but anyone of us here could create our own Stasi SQL script to put it all together) for the sake of Marketing Data?
They're keeping us SAFE after all and if you do nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about!
Right???
Re:Is Wiretapping Legal Now? (Score:3, Interesting)
Ahoy Despotism? (Score:5, Interesting)
Seems to me that when the government can violate the law with impunity, it is aiming for despotism. The law of the land is respected only so long as everybody (the government included) is held accountable by it equally.
and the enemy is (Score:4, Interesting)
That we're allowed to (nay, made to) fear and to react to that which we can not see is no longer acceptable. Not. Acceptable.
I. Do. Not. Accept.
Re:God DAMN you BOOOSH!!!! (Score:4, Interesting)
George Bush didn't make any laws. The President doesn't make laws, he signs them (or vetoes them). He can write Executive Orders, which are sort of like laws derived from powers the Executive was already granted by Congress or the Constitution, but this isn't one of them. The law in question is a bona fide law passed by Congress with a majority vote of both Houses.
Did Bush want the law? Yes. Was he going to get the law if it would have seen most of the Congress people booted out of office next election? Nope.
I'm not saying the voters are ultimately at fault, because the fact is with a government as big as it is these days, and the issues so numerous, what voter can actually find any representative who will see eye to eye with him? Even big topics like this one are only second order (or lower) issues compared to the overriding hot button issues that elections are actually won on. I mean, we have maneuvered the government into a position where we expect it to fix the whole damn economy as well as provide our health care. You'd have to start making a hell of a lot of warrant-less wiretaps to get someone to throw their favorite politician out of office for that.
Re:Is anyone surprised? (Score:4, Interesting)
Congress passed a unambiguous law before the US entered WW2 prohibiting wire tapping to catch potential German agents in the US and 15 minutes later Eisenhower wrote an executive directive to ignore the law. If the US had been defeated in WW2 he would have been prosecuted and most likely convicted but that didn't happen and Congress decided to pretend they never passed such a law. The US constitution and associated laws are not a suicide pact. Even more astonishing is that presidents Carter, Bush1, Clinton, and Bush 2 were asked what they would have done under the same situation and all of them said they would have did the same thing. Even Obama is willing to make decisions that are technically prohibited by law but laws do not cover all situations in certain circumstances. Especially when national security is involved.