Domestic Spying Program Comes Under Legal Scrutiny

[kpete]

Domestic Spying Program Comes Under Legal Scrutiny
A federal judge will hear the ACLU's arguments today against the National Security Agency's warrantless anti-terror surveillance.

By Henry Weinstein, Times Staff Writer
June 12, 2006

The National Security Agency's controversial domestic surveillance program faces its first major court test today before a veteran federal judge in Detroit.

In January, groups including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Michigan branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations as well as several individuals, who said they feared the government was spying on them, filed a 60-page lawsuit seeking to have the warrantless wiretapping program declared unconstitutional. Among the individuals is James Bamford, author of two books on the NSA.

Under the program, launched after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the NSA listens in on phone calls and obtains e-mails into and out of the U.S. involving suspected terrorist affiliates. The program bypasses the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which was created after government spying scandals in the 1970s to approve warrants in some intelligence- and terrorism-related investigations.

The suit in Detroit, like one filed in New York by the Center for Constitutional Rights, asserts that the NSA's eavesdropping program has violated free-speech and privacy rights and has had a chilling effect on the communications of potential surveillance targets.

more at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-spying12jun12,1,4878727.story?ctrack=1&cset=true