+ - Appeals Court Approves Warrantless Wiretapping-> 1
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Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "The federal government may spy on Americans’ communications without warrants and without fear of being sued, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday in a decision reversing the first and only case that successfully challenged President George W. Bush’s once-secret Terrorist Surveillance Program. 'This case effectively brings to an end the plaintiffs’ ongoing attempts to hold the executive branch responsible for intercepting telephone conversations without judicial authorization,' a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals wrote (PDF). ... The San Francisco-based appeals court ruled that when Congress wrote the law regulating eavesdropping on Americans and spies, it never waived sovereign immunity in the section prohibiting targeting Americans without warrans. That means Congress did not allow for aggrieved Americans to sue the government, even if their constitutional rights were violated by the United States breaching its own wiretapping laws."
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Title is incorrect (Score:2)
The appeals court didn't approve anything. The court's statement "That means Congress did not allow for aggrieved Americans to sue the government, even if their constitutional rights were violated by the United States breaching its own wiretapping laws." means that even though the law makes wiretapping illegal there's nothing you can do when the feds break the law.