A federal intelligence court judge earlier this year secretly declared a key element of the Bush administration's wiretapping efforts illegal, according to a lawmaker and government sources, providing a previously unstated rationale for fevered efforts by congressional lawmakers this week to expand the president's spying powers.Oho! Well, I mean, if the judge's ruling was secret, how do we know about it? Damn Democr--
House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) disclosed elements of the court's decision in remarks Tuesday to Fox News as he was promoting the administration-backed wiretapping legislation. Boehner has denied revealing classified information, but two government officials privy to the details confirmed that his remarks concerned classified information.The court struck down the part of the program that involved spying on foreign communications that involve people inside the United States -- something those of us who are concerned about civil liberties have long believed to be illegal. Now that it is, of course, Congress is working feverishly to...authorize the wiretap program.
Oy.
Now, I'll freely admit that there may be a wiretapping program that would be Constitutional, and Congress could, given time, put together such a package. Unfortunately, "working feverishly" is a very bad way to do that, especially given that the legislation is being enacted behind closed doors, away from public scrutiny.
As the New York Times opines:
The administration and its Republican supporters in Congress argue that American intelligence is blinded by FISA and have seized on neatly timed warnings of heightened terrorist activity to scare everyone. It is vital for Americans, especially lawmakers, to resist that argument. It is pure propaganda.Exactly. Concern for civil liberties is a cornerstone of our democracy, not a speed bump on the road to summer recess. If Congress can't enact good legislation before their summer break, they should wait for fall. As for the Bush administration, as Anonymous Liberal says, "Many of us have been saying for a long time now that the legal theories underlying the Bush administration's surveillance activities are rubbish. We were clearly right." Let us not forsake that in order to quickly give the President that which he's illegally taken these past few years.
This is not, and has never been, a debate over whether the United States should conduct effective surveillance of terrorists and their supporters. It is over whether we are a nation ruled by law, or the whims of men in power. Mr. Bush faced that choice and made the wrong one. Congress must not follow him off the cliff.
