One Utah

One of the original grievances that the American colonies had against King George III’s government was its penchant for issuing general search warrants (called Writs of Assistance). A judge would issue a warrant for a general area and crown officers could search any place in that area looking for illegalities without any prior cause or suspicion. Well, another King George has apparently brought back the general warrant. First, a quick review.

A little over a year ago, the New York Times finally got around to telling us that the initials NSA stand for “Now Spying on Americans.” They sat on the story through the 2004 election, thanks NYT. In a surprise move, instead of hiding behind secrecy President Bush quickly admitted repeatedly authorizing the National Security Agency warrantless domestic surveillance program beginning in 2002, and declared he would keep it going in defiance of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA), as well as some obscure law passed in the late 18th Century.

Most people seemed not to realize the President of the United States had openly admitted to multiple counts of an impeachable offense. Others were outraged but could do nothing as long as Congress was in the grip of the Republicans. The photo shows Attorney General Alberto Gonzales being protested by Georgetown University law students.

Now, on to recent developments. Today, Attorney General Gonzales wrote a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is about to hold hearings on the secret NSA surveillance program. The letter is vague but seems to indicate that a week ago the administration convinced a judge on the FISA court to issue a general search warrant approving all surveillance activities in advance, rather than on a case-by-case basis as FISA requires. We do not know the name of the judge or exactly what the court order says, that’s secret.

The timing of this letter is also suspect because at the end of this month an ACLU lawsuit against the NSA program is scheduled for oral argument in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Last August, a federal district court judge ruled that the warrantless wiretapping program is unconstitutional and ordered that it be stopped immediately (that order was stayed pending appeal). The government may be preparing to argue that the domestic surveillance program now complies with the law.

Talking Points Memo has video of Tony Snow trying to explain the Gonzales letter.

UPDATE: Today’s Judiciary Committee hearing failed to clear up whether case-by-case basis decisions on surveillance of Americans are now made by FISA judges or by NSA spies.

This entry was posted Wednesday, January 17th, 2007 at 8:04 pm and is filed under Crimes, Democracy, George W. Bush, Human Rights, National Politics, Political Corruption, The Constitution, This Blog. Both comments and pings are currently closed.