Supreme Court Rejects ACLU Domestic Spying Case

Cross posted from Stop The ACLU

by Jay

Basically because the case had nothing to do with spying on domestic citizens, was supposed to be a secret program, and common sense the ACLU lacks. What it came down to was that none of the plaintiff’s had any standing. The ACLU feared that some of their conversations with terrorist representatives might have been listened to, however they couldn’t provide any evidence of that.

Wake Up America:

The ACLU consistently insists that programs such as the NSA wiretapping program goes against civil liberties and opposing opinions just as consistently insist that National Security depends on being able to monitor calls and contacts from the U.S. to terror groups outside the U.S to be able to protect America from further terrorist attacks.

The courts are caught in the middle and have to walk a fine line between civil liberties and protecting America because ruling against one may “step on” the other.

However, in this case it was a position from the ACLU that was full of holes and couldn’t pass muster to even be argued. The ACLU are calling it a catch 22 because the program being secret keeps them from being able to prove whether they haved been listened to. Really, I hope the government is listening in on the ACLU phone calls.

Here is the news:

“It’s very disturbing that the president’s actions will go unremarked upon by the court,” said Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU’s national security project. “In our view, it shouldn’t be left to executive branch officials alone to determine the limits.”

The Terrorist Surveillance Program no longer exists, although the administration has maintained it was legal.

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.

I’m just curious as to why the ACLU had to alter the way they were communicating with foreigners. When did the Constitution provide civil liberties for anyone besides American citizens? What did the ACLU need to talk to foreigners about that they were afraid of the government knowing? Nice to see the ACLU slapped down with some common sense.

Michelle Malkin says, “America 1. ACLU 0!

Rusty at MPJ:

If the ACLU is correct, it means that the lapsing of the FISA law is no big deal. In fact, law enforcement may now have more ability to monitor terrorist activities because of the compromises included in the new law which give FISA courts much more power to oversee law-enforcement monitoring activities.

Pirate’s Cove mocks the ACLU!

Liberty Pundit sums it all up nicely.

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Crossposted with Stop The ACLU

ACLU Disappointed: FISA Court Denies Access to Wiretap Records

[1] Via the ACLU:

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a request for the documents with the FISC in August following passage of the Protect America Act, a law that vastly expands the Bush administration’s authority to conduct warrantless wiretapping of Americans’ international phone calls and e-mails. In attempting to justify passage of the law, the president and members of Congress publicly made repeated veiled references to orders issued by the FISC earlier this year.

Today the FISC ruled that, despite the fact that release of the orders would inform the public about the government’s surveillance powers, the court would not conduct a review to determine whether the legal rulings were properly determined to be classified.

The following can be attributed to Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU National Security Project:

“The decision is disappointing, both in its reasoning and its result. A federal court’s interpretation of federal law should not be kept secret from the American public. The Bush administration is seeking expanded surveillance powers from Congress because of the rulings issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court earlier this year. Under this decision, those rulings may remain secret forever.”

[2] More…

Writing for the court, U.S. District Judge John Bates refused:

‘The identification of targets and methods of surveillance would permit adversaries to evade surveillance, conceal their activities, and possibly mislead investigators through false information,’ Bates said.

Of course this common sense approach of avoiding the revelation of our “secret” methods of listening in on terrorist activity disppoints the ACLU. Their history of looking out for the “rights” of our enemies during war time is [3] long and documented. Thank goodness common sense triumphed over the ACLU’s dangerous agenda this time around. Since it was the ACLU whining that everything should go through this court for approval, this should shut them up. Don’t count on it.

[4] Jason Javitz:

It’s good to see that someone over in D.C. has a functioning cerebrum, eh?

P.S. – Judge Bates was nominated to the federal bench — yeah, you guessed it — by President George W. Bush.

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Gideons Keep Out of North Carolina’s Elementary Schools!

A North Carolina school district is putting an end to the donations of Bibles to elementary school kids.
The Cumberland County school system says state law limits the practice strictly to high schools and has issued instructions banning it at 54 elementary schools in the metro Fayetteville area.
The move comes after a parent complained about the stack of Bibles left in her son’s classroom earlier this month. The same parent filed a complaint with the American Civil Liberties Union.
The Fayetteville Observer said that while a 1998 court decision allows outside groups to make Bibles available to high school students, the ACLU contends it doesn’t apply to elementary kids who might see the practice as promoting Christianity over other religions.
The Bibles came from the Gideons, the group best known for supplying Bibles to hotel rooms.

Gideons be warned. The ACLU are likely to jail you if you try to share the gospel to kids. What? You thought the Constitution protected freedom of religion? Not according to the ACLU’s version. Maybe you should try pro-Palestian, or pro-Communist propaganda. Or maybe install some footbaths to accomadate Muslims. The ACLU seem to think these are protected speech.
The ACLU have a long history of going after the Gideons, but talk about splitting hairs. I thought their argument was based on public schools being government funded. Whats the difference between Elementary and High Schools on that basis? A biased loophole is all. Once again the ACLU lives up to its reputation as America’s number one religious censor.
Conservative Belle:

I wonder if parents of an elementary school student in NC could sue the state now and claim there is age discrimination by only allowing Bibles for teenagers. They seemed to be the ones now discriminated against. The ACLU is once again picking and choosing their ridiculous battles.

Lobo emails this article on it as well and says:

“The ACLU also argued that the case did not support Bible distribution in elementary schools. >>>Those students are impressionable<<< and would likely think that the school was promoting the Bible by making it available, said Katherine Lewis Parker, the legal director for the ACLU of North Carolina.”
Is the ACLU admitting that students are “impessionable” when it comes to the Bible but NOT when it involves teaching and advocating Islam in our schools? Or homosexuality? etc.

A North Carolina school district is putting an end to the donations of Bibles to elementary school kids.
The Cumberland County school system says state law limits the practice strictly to high schools and has issued instructions banning it at 54 elementary schools in the metro Fayetteville area.

The move comes after a parent complained about the stack of Bibles left in her son’s classroom earlier this month. The same parent filed a complaint with the American Civil Liberties Union.

The Fayetteville Observer said that while a 1998 court decision allows outside groups to make Bibles available to high school students, the ACLU contends it doesn’t apply to elementary kids who might see the practice as promoting Christianity over other religions.

The Bibles came from the Gideons, the group best known for supplying Bibles to hotel rooms.

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