Court Orders Dismissal of US Wiretapping Lawsuit

jcatcw writes with a link to a ComputerWorld article about the dismissal of a case against the NSA over the wiretapping program revealed last year. The case was brought by the ACLU. A three-judge panel in the Sixth Circuit has sent the case back down to District court for ultimate dismissal. "The appeals court decision leaves opponents of the NSA program in a difficult position, said Jim Dempsey, policy director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, a civil liberties group that has opposed the program. The appeals court ruled that the plaintiffs could not sue because they can't prove they were affected by the program, and at the same time, ruled that details about the program, including who was targeted, are state secrets."

Comments

Let me get this straight...

[jd]

• Those who can prove they were affected are mishandling classified material and are therefore terrorists
• Those who can prove they were NOT affected must also be mishandling classified material, but since they're not terrorists, they must be traitors
• Those who can reasonably conclude they were probably affected can't sue because probable cause is not proof
• The remainder of the population is obviously hiding something and is probably being spied on by all the other agencies

Fortunately, the decision can be appealed. No guarantee that would do any good. Since we're in election season, judges are standing by their political affiliations on all sides. Even if the decision was favorable to the plaintiffs, though, there's no reason to believe that it'll do any good. How many Republican senators are going to want to look weak on national security right now? That means even if the matter does stay in the courts, it is very unlikely anything will happen before late in November 2008. Of course, if it does stay in the courts, the NSA could just plead guilty and have the President issue a full pardon the following day, rescinding the finding and penalties exacted.

Re:Tough ground

[jimstapleton]

Two good reasons I can think of at the moment:

If people know they are being spied on an tapped, they'll take fewer risks and give less away.

Likewise, if they know they /aren't/ they'll be more agressive in their interactions and get things done faster, with possibly better organization.

Entrap The Government

[porkface]

It's time for the EFF and some supernerds to entrap the government.

Plant some communications that raise the government's interest enough to show up to investigate. Ensure the communications, once the plot is revealed, would not be judged to be a real threat or significantly illegal otherwise. But make sure it raises ire and causes a response that could not otherwise have been wise to the communications had they not been illegally snooping.

Bonus points if you can make it high profile enough that Cheney cannot absolve himself of knowledge of the details of the trap.

What recourse, indeed!

[triskaidekaphile]

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Sound familiar?