Decision Nixing Terrorist Surveillance Program Appealed
By California Yankee Posted in War — Comments (2) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Wasting little time, the Justice Department has appealed today's ruling on the Terrorist Surveillance Program and parties have also agreed to a stay of the injunction:
The Terrorist Surveillance Program is a critical tool that ensures we have in place an early warning system to detect and prevent a terrorist attack. In the ongoing conflict with al- Qaeda and its allies, the president has the primary duty under the Constitution to protect the American people. The Constitution gives the president the full authority necessary to carry out that solemn duty, and we believe the program is lawful and protects civil liberties. Because the Terrorist Surveillance Program is an essential tool for the intelligence community in the war on terror, the Department of Justice has appealed the District Court's order. The parties have also agreed to a stay of the injunction until the District Court can hear the Department's motion for a stay pending appeal.
Read more.
Earlier today a federal judge ruled the government's Terrorist Surveillance Program is unconstitutional and ordered an immediate halt to it:
U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit became the first judge to strike down the National Security Agency's program, which she says violates the rights to free speech and privacy as well as the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution.
Judge Taylor is a Carter appointee. Her decision is one of the most blatantly political opinions I've read in some time. You can read it for yourself here [pdf file].
The decision is also artfully timed, in a political kind of way. It will be hard to get it reversed by November, but reversed it will be.
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Decision Nixing Terrorist Surveillance Program Appealed 2 Comments (0 topical, 2 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
I don't agree that Taylor has done us a great service, except in some very short term political sense.
What she's done is highlight once again the extent to which all majesty has been ripped from the Judicial Branch and replaced with political sleaze. Trust me, no one wanted that. In the end it will "benefit" no one.
Never mind the legal niceties, that opinion reads like some outhouse-lawyer's rant on Daily Kos. Has it really come to this? Sadly, yes.
There is no institution in our society that the left has not corrupted, destroyed, or turned into crap.
Drink Good Coffee. You can sleep when you're dead.
Taylor has done us a great service - she has made her own position - that of federal judge - an issue again. Republican ccandidates everywhere will be out in force to tell people that these are the kinds of judges - and therefore decisions - you get when you allow liberals to control the process. And given the tactics the Democrats have pulled as the minority party, who has any doubt that a Democrat takeover of the Senate would effectively mean that not one new judge would be confirmed between now and November 2008?
Judge Taylor has highlighted the reason Democrats can't be trusted. I'm sure that, if she hasn't already, Nancy Pelosi will be issuing press releases and calling press conferences to extol the virtues of the decision and condemn the only person in Washington who seems to care whether we all get incinerated on our commuter trains - George Bush.
Who cares if the reversal happens before Election Day - the longer this decision remains standing the longer we have to campaign on this issue. Remember that polls showed that the public was supportive of the program when it was revealed. This is a winner for national security conservatives - and with a stay being agreed on, the liklihood is that there will be no real suspension of the program in the meantime.