ACLU Joins Fight Against Internet Surveillance

aychamo writes "The American Civil Liberties Union today joined an expanding group of organizations filing lawsuits against a new rule that increases the FBI's power to conduct surveillance on the Internet. The rule being challenged is one the Federal Communications Commission adopted in September, granting an FBI request to expand wiretapping authority to online communications.he ACLU charged in a petition to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that the ruling goes beyond the authority of CALEA, which specifically exempted information services. "The ACLU seeks review of the CALEA order on the grounds that it exceeds the FCC's statutory authority and is arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, unsupported by substantial evidence, or otherwise contrary to law," the organization charged in its petition."

Comments

Re:Tough Question

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

The more power we give the government to invade our lives, the more they'll use it.

What do you mean "will use it"? Ever been to the US since september 11, 2001?

Re:Tough Question

[Tackhead]

> And also strangely, those that don't want to trust the government with health care, are more than willing to trust the government to carry out capital punishment.

In the past century, governments have racke dup 180,000,000 deaths.

Trusting a government with health care is strange. Trusting the government with killing is simply a matter of recognizing a core competency.

Re:ACLU

[scheming daemons]

While I admire the ACLU for taking on some contentious issues which are nasty, but have to be defended, most of their stuff seems to be things like forcing a nativity scene out of a city park or trying to make it possible for someone to mask their face in a driver's license photo.

No.. most of their stuff does not. Just most of the stuff that jokers like O'Reilly and Limbaugh like to focus on.

Almost all of their cases are about protecting the civil rights of the individual against the "man". You don't hear about most of those, because Fox News won't highlight them.

Re:At least this time it's useful.

[scheming daemons]

Bravo.

seriously, some people don't get it. When the ACLU defends the KKK holding a protest march, they aren't agreeing with the KKK.. they are defending their right to march.

This makes the ACLU even more noble, in my opinion. The ability to defend a person or group that you loathe with every fiber of your being (at sometimes considerable monetary and PR expense to yourself), just to uphold a higher ideal, is downright saint-like.

Some people think it's about "defending the KKK" or "blocking harmless nativity scenes on public buildings" or "keeping the 10 commandments out of courtrooms". It is not... and the failure of a person to "get" the point says more about them than the ACLU.

"defending the KKK's right to protest" is about defending your right to espouse an unpopular idea.

"taking nativity scenes off of the government property" is about defending your right to not have your government endorse a particular religious viewpoint.

"taking the 10 commandments out of the courtroom" is about defending your right to not be pre-judged, even subliminally, because you don't share the religious beliefs of the people who will decide your fate.

"fighting against Intelligent Design in the classroom" is about defending your right, and your childrens' rights, to not be religiously indoctrinated by the state.

The ACLU will defend your civil rights, no matter how loathesome you or your viewpoints are. That makes them noble. Those that can't see that are too simple to get it.