Ars Technica.com
by David Kravetts, wired.com
A federal appeals court on Thursday reinstated a closely watched lawsuit accusing the federal government of working with the nation’s largest telecommunication companies to illegally funnel Americans’ electronic communications to the National Security Agency without court warrants.
While the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals revived the long-running case brought by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the three-judge panel unanimously refused to rule on the merits of the case, or whether it was true the United States breached the public’s Fourth Amendment rights by undertaking an ongoing dragnet surveillance program the EFF said commenced under the Bush administration following 9/11.
The San Francisco-based appeals court reversed a San Francisco federal judge who tossed the case against the government nearly three years ago. US District Judge Vaughn Walker, now retired, said the lawsuit amounted to a “general grievance” from the public, and not an actionable claim.
Walker also presided over the only case that found the Bush administration illegally spied on American citizens when it unleashed the NSA on Americans’ conversations, ruling that the government violated the rights of two American lawyers for al-Haramain, a now defunct Islamic charity. The government is appealing that ruling.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/12/court-revives-nsa-dragnet-surveillance-case.ars
Law breaking was certainly “business as usual” for the neocon “managers” of America’s government. It started in 1980. That makes their rein long enough to have created and filled a Pandora’s box with broken laws and other secrets the neocons wanted hidden from the public record.
A consortium of the neocon Executive Branch, the “SHOULDER-TO-SHOULDER” neocon Congressional Branch and BIG BUSINESS came together to violate the laws of America. After all – who was big and bad enough to stop them?
The Executive and Congressional branches were “joined at the hip”. When the Executive Branch broke the law, the Congressional Branch changed the law and made it retroactive. At that time America’s three branches of government were more like two. Only the Judicial Branch was battling the George W. Bush administration. And that was a full time job.
But apparently, it ain’t over til it’s over. There are still Americans who love America – from sea to shinning sea. They don’t seem to be the “GREED BASED TYPE”. They seem to be trying to return America to its pre-1980 days of “speaking softly and carrying a big stick”, They seem to be trying to return America to its ethical days. They’ve got a big job ahead of them but Godspeed.
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Tags: congressional branch, court, executive branch, George W. Bush, judicial branch, law breaking, nsa dragnet surveillance case, spying on americans
