WH asks judge to delay enforcing her order to halt NSA! I missed this [View All]

[rodeodance]

news dump last Friday!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060901/ap_on_go_pr_wh/eavesdropping
Govt. asks to keep eavesdropping program

By KATHERINE SHRADER, Associated Press Writer Fri Sep 1, 5:40 PM ET

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration on Friday asked a federal judge to delay enforcing her order for a halt to the government's warrantless communications surveillance program.


The Justice Department argued that ending the intelligence-gathering program threatens "the gravest of harms to the government and to the American public" and leaves the country "more vulnerable to terrorist attack."

"We respectfully submit that this court should not override the national security judgment of the president and the nation's senior intelligence officers regarding the harm that would result" from the program's suspension, the government lawyers argued in a motion filed with the court.

U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor ruled last month in Detroit that the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program is unconstitutional and ordered that it be halted.

The Justice Department appealed Taylor's decision to the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the suit along with 11 other parties, will oppose a stay, but agreed to delay enforcement of the injunction until Taylor hears arguments Sept. 7.