home

Two Lawsuits Filed Today Over NSA Surveillance

Bump and Update: The ACLU press release is here. There is a webpage with documents and statements. The text of the complaint is here (pdf.)

The Center for Constitutional Rights press release is here.
The complaint is here. (pdf)

*******
Original Post (1/17 5:00 am)

The ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights will be filing federal lawsuits today over Bush's warrantless NSA electronic surveillance program. The ACLU will file its suit in Detroit and CCR will file in New York.

Both groups are seeking to have the courts order an immediate end to the program, which the groups say is illegal and unconstitutional....officials said the Justice Department would probably oppose the lawsuits on national security grounds.

The lawsuits seek information to determine whether Bush is telling the truth that the program was aimed at communications linked to al-Qaeda, or whether it was used to spy on ordinary Americans, journalists or politicians.

The lawsuits seek to answer one of the major questions surrounding the eavesdropping program: has it been used solely to single out the international phone calls and e-mail messages of people with known links to Al Qaeda, as President Bush and his most senior advisers have maintained, or has it been abused in ways that civil rights advocates say could hark back to the political spying abuses of the 1960's and 70's?

The ACLU advised the Times that it has no specific information the plaintiffs in its suit were spied upon.

....the plaintiffs in the A.C.L.U. lawsuit include five Americans who work in international policy and terrorism, along with the A.C.L.U. and three other groups..... "We don't have any direct evidence" that the plaintiffs were monitored by the security agency, said Ann Beeson, associate legal director for the A.C.L.U. "But the plaintiffs have a well-founded belief that they may have been monitored, and there's a real chilling effect in the fear that they can no longer have confidential discussions with clients or sources without the possibility that the N.S.A. is listening."

....Also named as plaintiffs in the A.C.L.U. lawsuit are the journalist Christopher Hitchens, who has written in support of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; Barnett R. Rubin, a scholar at New York University who works in international relations; Tara McKelvey, a senior editor at The American Prospect; the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers; Greenpeace, the environmental advocacy group; and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the country's largest Islamic advocacy group.

The plaintiffs if the CCR suit are lawyers for Guantanamo detainees:

The Center for Constitutional Rights plans to sue on behalf of four lawyers at the center and a legal assistant there who work on terrorism-related cases at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and overseas, which often involves international e-mail messages and phone calls.

< Privacy for Sale: Any Cellphone Record For a Price | Al Gore vs. Hillary in '08? >
  • The Online Magazine with Liberal coverage of crime-related political and injustice news

  • Contribute To TalkLeft


  • Display: Sort:
    Re: Two Lawsuits Filed Today Over NSA Surveillance (none / 0) (#1)
    by Che's Lounge on Tue Jan 17, 2006 at 07:47:55 AM EST
    Hey! The USSC voted 6 to 3 to uphold Oregon's Death with Dignity law.

    Interesting. How do you file suit if you have no evidence a law was broken? I mean, all it really comes down to is anonymous sources saying Bush broke the law and Bush saying "nuh-uh!" Can the ACLU use discovery to force Bush to reveal the nature of the eavesdropping program?

    Re: Two Lawsuits Filed Today Over NSA Surveillance (none / 0) (#3)
    by Repack Rider on Tue Jan 17, 2006 at 11:03:36 AM EST
    How do you file suit if you have no evidence a law was broken? You are confusing a lawsuit with a criminal trial. A lawsuit can be about damages, whether or not a law was broken, or it can be used to force public officials to live up to their statutory requirements. I mean, all it really comes down to is anonymous sources saying Bush broke the law and Bush saying "nuh-uh!" Bush himself has made some rather damaging and contradictory statements, which he will now be forced to eat. He has admitted that the activity took place, and his only complaint was that it shouldn't have been made public. He has claimed that he had the authority do do it. Only a court can settle that question, because otherwise Bush would be his own authority, i.e. a dictator. Can the ACLU use discovery to force Bush to reveal the nature of the eavesdropping program? Bush under oath? Penalty of perjury? I think I just had an orgasm.

    Re: Two Lawsuits Filed Today Over NSA Surveillance (none / 0) (#4)
    by Edger on Tue Jan 17, 2006 at 11:20:15 AM EST
    Repack: Bush under oath? Penalty of perjury? I think I just had an orgasm. I'll wait till the snuff movie starring Bush is released...

    Any idiot can file a lawsuit, lets just see where either of these suits end up.

    Re: Two Lawsuits Filed Today Over NSA Surveillance (none / 0) (#6)
    by kdog on Tue Jan 17, 2006 at 12:59:13 PM EST
    Hopefully, these lawsuits end in the return to the good old days when the state needed a warrant to get all up in your business.

    Re: Two Lawsuits Filed Today Over NSA Surveillance (none / 0) (#7)
    by ras on Tue Jan 17, 2006 at 01:23:18 PM EST
    Apparently Karl Rove has extended his mind-control beams to the ACLU now.

    ras: Karl Rove has extended his mind-control beams to the ACLU now. huh?

    Repack, you said You are confusing a lawsuit with a criminal trial. A lawsuit can be about damages, whether or not a law was broken, or it can be used to force public officials to live up to their statutory requirements. I'm afraid that you're the one who is confused, Repack. Your own words contradict themselves. First, if a public official isn't fullfilling their statutory responsibilities then they are, by definition, breaking the law. Second, you can't sue someone if they are operating within the law. Even if my actions cause you harm, you cannot sue me unless my actions were illegal. Similarly, the ACLU must not only provide evidence that Bush broke FISA, they must show that they, or the people they represent, were harmed by those violations. For example, Sailor cannot sue me because my actions caused *you* harm, because Sailor isn't the injured party. Thus, I can't see what the ACLU hopes to accomplish - unless they can show actual evidence that Bush was eavesdropping on someone they represent, their suit will be thrown out of court.