nankerphelge
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Re: Obama elected President
Reply #3286 - Mar 2nd, 2009 at 3:42pm
Is it surprising that the Bush Administration was considering the Constitutionality of searches and seizures of possible terrorists in the US right after 9/11?
Seriously, not knowing whether another attack was imminent and given the Anthrax mailings, it makes complete sense that the Administration to be considering the issue. Note that they never implemented it!
Further, the FISA court recently ruled that the wiretap program was Constitutional:
WASHINGTON: A federal intelligence court, in a rare public opinion, issued a major ruling validating the power of the president and Congress to wiretap international telephone calls and intercept e-mail messages without a specific court order, even when Americans' private communications may be involved.
The court decision, made in August 2008 by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, came in an unclassified, redacted form.
The decision marks the first time since the disclosure of the National Security Agency's warrantless eavesdropping program three years ago that an appellate court has addressed the constitutionality of the federal government's wiretapping powers. In validating the government's wide authority to collect foreign intelligence, it may offer legal credence to the Bush administration's repeated assertions that the president has the power to act without specific court approval in ordering national security eavesdropping that may involve Americans.
The Aug. 22 appeals court decision upheld a secret ruling issued last year by the intelligence court that it oversees, known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance, or FISA, court. In that initial opinion, the secret court found that Congress had acted within its authority in August 2007 when it passed a hotly debated law known as the Protect America Act, which gave the executive branch broad power to eavesdrop on international communications.
"The Department of Justice is pleased with this important ruling by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, which upholds the constitutionality of foreign intelligence surveillance conducted under the Protect America Act of 2007," a Justice Department statement said.
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You also fail to note that your beloved Obama is still doing the same thing!
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Obama elected President (Read 620,791 times)
