Part of partiot act ruled unconstitutional

WickedLou9 · 09-26-2007, 09:27 PM

2 Patriot Act Provisions ruled unlawful - Yahoo! News

PORTLAND, Ore. - Two provisions of the USA Patriot Act are unconstitutional because they allow search warrants to be issued without a showing of probable cause, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken ruled that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, as amended by the Patriot Act, "now permits the executive branch of government to conduct surveillance and searches of American citizens without satisfying the probable cause requirements of the Fourth Amendment."

The wheels of justice turn slowly, but turn they do. It took 6 years for this to happen?

tbone · 09-26-2007, 10:50 PM

Originally Posted by WickedLou9

2 Patriot Act Provisions ruled unlawful - Yahoo! News

The wheels of justice turn slowly, but turn they do. It took 6 years for this to happen?

It's not the first time this has happened. But the last time it was appealed and the decision favored the Patriot Act in the 2nd ruling.

RMNIXON · 09-28-2007, 05:49 PM

It is called a Judicial Appeals Process as I recall? No U.S. District Judge is yet to be appointed "God all Mighty" on matters of the Constitution.

Meanwhile:

OK to Spy on Kidnappers Took 9 Hours

September 27, 2007 - 10:08pm

By PAMELA HESS
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Last spring, with insurgents apparently holding three American soldiers in Iraq, it took the U.S. government more than nine hours to begin emergency surveillance of some of the kidnappers' electronic communications.

The bulk of that time was spent on internal legal deliberations by Bush administration lawyers and intelligence officials, according to a timeline from the office of the director of national intelligence. One of the soldiers was later found dead. The other two are still listed as missing.
The delay was a centerpiece of the Bush administration's argument to Congress in late July that the law requiring court orders to conduct electronic surveillance inside the United States was dangerously restrictive.

Congress subsequently approved an amendment to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that removed the requirement for a court order to intercept foreign communications on U.S. soil. The original law was written to protect Americans from inappropriate government surveillance.

The timeline, obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, showed that the Bush administration held "internal deliberations" on the "novel and complicated issues" presented by the emergency FISA request for more than four hours after the National Security Agency's top lawyer had approved it.

The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, last week blamed the delay on unnecessary bureaucracy within the Justice Department. Justice Department and U.S. intelligence officials dispute that, and say the NSA decision alone was not legally sufficient to authorize an emergency request.

"It's not a done deal at that point," Dean Boyd, a spokesman for Justice Department, said Thursday. "We believed we needed additional information and needed to resolve novel legal questions before we were satisfied we could take this to the attorney general."

Another two hours passed when Justice Department officials had trouble tracking down Alberto Gonzales, then the attorney general. He was speaking at a conference of U.S. attorneys in Texas.

Justice Department officials had to make several phone calls to Gonzales' staff before they were able to speak directly with him to get his authorization for the surveillance, according to the timeline.

The original FISA law generally requires court orders if the government conducts electronic surveillance on U.S. soil. It allows the attorney general to authorize surveillance in emergencies without a court order for up to 72 hours, provided the government has probable cause to believe it is eavesdropping on an agent of a foreign power.

OK to Spy on Kidnappers Took 9 Hours

__________________________________________________ ___

MY Goodness! The Bush Whitehouse and Justice Nazi's Deliberated!

WickedLou9 · 09-28-2007, 05:55 PM

I bet this one holds up.

and I have no problem with it taking a few hours to get a warrant. If that is the price we pay to secure our rights and our way of life then so be it.

Originally Posted by RMNIXON

It is called a Judicial Appeals Process as I recall? No U.S. District Judge is yet to be appointed "God all Mighty" on matters of the Constitution.

Meanwhile:

OK to Spy on Kidnappers Took 9 Hours

September 27, 2007 - 10:08pm

By PAMELA HESS
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Last spring, with insurgents apparently holding three American soldiers in Iraq, it took the U.S. government more than nine hours to begin emergency surveillance of some of the kidnappers' electronic communications.

The bulk of that time was spent on internal legal deliberations by Bush administration lawyers and intelligence officials, according to a timeline from the office of the director of national intelligence. One of the soldiers was later found dead. The other two are still listed as missing.
The delay was a centerpiece of the Bush administration's argument to Congress in late July that the law requiring court orders to conduct electronic surveillance inside the United States was dangerously restrictive.

Congress subsequently approved an amendment to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that removed the requirement for a court order to intercept foreign communications on U.S. soil. The original law was written to protect Americans from inappropriate government surveillance.

The timeline, obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, showed that the Bush administration held "internal deliberations" on the "novel and complicated issues" presented by the emergency FISA request for more than four hours after the National Security Agency's top lawyer had approved it.

The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, last week blamed the delay on unnecessary bureaucracy within the Justice Department. Justice Department and U.S. intelligence officials dispute that, and say the NSA decision alone was not legally sufficient to authorize an emergency request.

"It's not a done deal at that point," Dean Boyd, a spokesman for Justice Department, said Thursday. "We believed we needed additional information and needed to resolve novel legal questions before we were satisfied we could take this to the attorney general."

Another two hours passed when Justice Department officials had trouble tracking down Alberto Gonzales, then the attorney general. He was speaking at a conference of U.S. attorneys in Texas.

Justice Department officials had to make several phone calls to Gonzales' staff before they were able to speak directly with him to get his authorization for the surveillance, according to the timeline.

The original FISA law generally requires court orders if the government conducts electronic surveillance on U.S. soil. It allows the attorney general to authorize surveillance in emergencies without a court order for up to 72 hours, provided the government has probable cause to believe it is eavesdropping on an agent of a foreign power.

OK to Spy on Kidnappers Took 9 Hours

__________________________________________________ ___

MY Goodness! The Bush Whitehouse and Justice Nazi's Deliberated!