in 1972, in a case before the supreme court, John Mitchell, the attorney general at the time argued that the government didn't need a warrant to tap the phone of any political dissenter it thought was a threat to national security. Sound familiar, the Shubbery are making the same arguments. Unfortunately for them (in their little minds) the Supreme Court ruled 9-0 against that belief. Justice Lewis Powell, a Nixon appointee, wrote for the unanimous court that the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution protects Americans from "unreasonable searches and seizures" and that that freedom "cannot be properly guaranteed if domestic security surveillances are conducted solely at the discretion of the executive branch."
So these so called expanded surveillance powers are clearly unconstitutional. The judicial constraints were put in place for a reason. They are pretty lax too. The government has up to 72 hours before applying to a FISA court for a wiretap warrent. Moreover the court has rejected less than one half of one percent of all the warrents since the court was set up. larry On 1/22/06, Sam <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > They claim all the taps originate overseas so we're good. > If we have a court order to tap Bin laden and you call him it's > covered, so why should they hang up? > > It's actually not oversimplification. It's the case at hand and you > seem to agree with it. If we complicate it by saying we're taping > Americans you're against it as I would be. Sometime black and white > doesn't work and we need to deal with things on a case-by-case basis. > > Problem is you see wide spread abuse and I see checks and balances. > You are right that once that door is opened it'll be hard to close, in > fact it's always been open. I do fear if Hillary makes it to the Oval > Office there will be serious abuse. Maybe now we can patch this > loophole before that happens. That will mean amending the > Constitution. > > > On 1/22/06, Tim Heald wrote: > > No, Bin Laden called the American, the tap is on Bin Laden. If I call Bin > > Laden they need to hang up. > > > > By the way, way to greatly over simplify the issue. > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:193742 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
