|
| July 3, 2008
| Judge Rejects Bush's View on Wiretaps
| By ERIC LICHTBLAU
|
| WA****NGTON -- A federal judge in California said Wednesday
| that the wiretapping law established by Congress was the
| "exclusive" means for the president to eavesdrop on
| Americans, and he rejected the government's claim that the
| president's constitutional authority as commander in chief
| trumped that law.
|
| The judge, Vaughn R. Walker, the chief judge for the
| Northern District of California, made his findings in a
| ruling on a lawsuit brought by an Oregon charity. The group
| says it has evidence of an illegal wiretap used against it
| by the National Security Agency under the secret
| surveillance program established by President Bush after
| the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
|
| The Justice Department has tried for more than two years to
| kill the lawsuit, saying any surveillance of the charity or
| other entities was a "state secret" and citing the
| president's constitutional power as commander in chief to
| order wiretaps without a warrant from a court under the
| agency's program.
|
| But Judge Walker, who was appointed to the bench by former
| President George Bush, rejected those central claims in his
| 56-page ruling. He said the rules for surveillance were
| clearly established by Congress in 1978 under the Foreign
| Intelligence Surveillance Act, which requires the
| government to get a warrant from a secret court.
| ...
<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/03/wa****ngton/03fisa.html>
--bks
|
