Judge Rules Against Wiretaps

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NSA Program Called Unconstitutional
A federal judge in Detroit ruled yesterday that the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program is unconstitutional, delivering the first decision that the Bush administration's effort to monitor communications without court oversight runs afoul of the Bill of Rights and federal law.

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The decision could complicate efforts by the White House and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) to win approval for a bill that would allow, but not require, Bush to submit the NSA program to a secret court for legal review.


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Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) and other leading Democrats hailed the ruling as a welcome check on the Bush administration. The decision shows that "no one is above the law," Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) said.

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The ruling was hailed by lawyers involved in related, though legally separate, lawsuits elsewhere in the country. "We now have a ruling on the books that upholds what we've been saying all along: that this wiretapping program violates the Constitution," said Kevin Bankston, staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco, which has filed a class-action case against AT&T. The suit alleges that the telecommunications company collaborated with the NSA in its surveillance program.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/17/AR2006081700650.html