February 20, 2008...7:09 am
SCOTUS TURNS AWAY ACLU LAWSUIT
This was good news on the home front in the war against the jihadists.
The U.S. Supreme Court turned away a lawsuit filed by Those Lost Without ACLUe against the warrantless wire tapping program employed by the Bush administration.
WASHINGTON (al-AP) - The Supreme Court dealt a setback Tuesday to civil rights and privacy advocates who oppose the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program. The justices, without comment, turned down an appeal from the American Civil Liberties Union to let it pursue a lawsuit against the program that began shortly after the Sept. 11 terror attacks. The action underscored the difficulty of mounting a challenge to the eavesdropping, which remains classified and was confirmed by President Bush only after a newspaper article revealed its existence.
The ACLU sued on behalf of itself, other lawyers, reporters and scholars, arguing that the program was illegal and that they had been forced to alter how they communicate with foreigners who were likely to have been targets of the wiretapping.
A federal judge in Detroit largely agreed, but the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the suit, saying the plaintiffs could not prove their communications had been monitored and thus could not prove they had been harmed by the program.
The government has refused to turn over information about the closely guarded program that could reveal who has been under surveillance.
The terrorist surveillance program no longer exists. largely because al-New York Times revealed its existence, thus tipping off the jihadists that we were actually listening in on their phone calls.
Of course, the AlQaeda Civil Liberties Union cared more about those jihadists and American journalists who might be talking to them than protecting Americans.
Michelle Malkin calls it: America 1, Those Lost Without ACLUe 0.
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