Centerblue.org

A US federal judge in Detroit has ruled that the NSA’s domestic wiretapping program is unconstitutional, and issed an injunction to stop it immediately.

While the decision is not yet available, I suspect the judge found the program to run afoul of the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirements on wiretaps, the lack of which constitute an unreasonable search and seizure.

The Bush order to permit warrantless wiretapping surveillance was a gross violation of well-established precedent protecting Americans from a snooping federal government. If the president really requires a wiretap that is so urgent for the sake of national security that he doesn’t have time to go through the process of getting a warrant he has the option of doing the wiretap so long as he subsequently submits the warrant request to the FISA court. Giving Bush carte blanche authority to issue wiretap orders without the possibility of having the decision reviewed by any judge for probable cause is a power-grabbing usurpation of liberty that bears no relationship to his ability to protect the US from terrorist attack.

The president is charged with enforcing the laws, not wiping his ass with them. I’m glad the federal judge was brave enough to render this decision.