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Court Nixes National Security Letter Gag Provision
2phar sends news that on Monday a federal appeals court ruled unconstitutional the gag provision of the Patriot Act's National Security Letters. Until the ruling, recipients of NSLs were legally forbidden from speaking out. "The appeals court invalidated parts of the statute that wrongly placed the burden on NSL recipients to initiate judicial review of gag orders, holding that the government has the burden to go to court and justify silencing NSL recipients. The appeals court also invalidated parts of the statute that narrowly limited judicial review of the gag orders — provisions that required the courts to treat the government's claims about the need for secrecy as conclusive and required the courts to defer entirely to the executive branch." Update: 12/16 22:26 GMT by KD : Julian Sanchez, Washington Editor for Ars Technica, sent this cautionary note: "Both the item on yesterday's National Security Letter ruling and the RawStory article to which it links are somewhat misleading. It remains the case that ISPs served with an NSL are forbidden from speaking out; the difference is that under the ruling it will be somewhat easier for the ISPs to challenge that gag order, and the government will have to do a little bit more to persuade a court to maintain the gag when it is challenged. But despite what the ACLU's press releases imply, this is really not a 'victory' for them, or at least only a very minor one. Relative to the decision the government was appealing, it would make at least as much sense to call it a victory for the government. The lower court had struck down the NSL provisions of the PATRIOT Act entirely. This ruling left both the NSL statute and the gag order in place, but made oversight slightly stricter. If you look back at the hearings from this summer, you'll see that most of the new ruling involves the court making all the minor adjustments that the government had urged them to make, and which the ACLU had urged them to reject as inadequate."
So, in other words, he'll do nothing. As anyone who's been paying attention to him would know by now. He not only voted to extend the patriot act, but he voted for the FISA amendments.
Obama's position on civil liberties is clear. He doesn't believe in them any more than Bush did. Hopefully the other branches of our government can keep him from running rampant, or else we are well and truly fucked.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
Yes, the people must be protected from themselves. Their money must also be sequestered and divided equally among the masses for services like health care, food stamps and welfare.
We must look out for the common good of the people at the expense of those that are living some false "American Dream" of success and well-being.
Think of the homeland! Think of how taking care of those unwilling to do for themselves will benefit Mother America.
George Bush has proven that the American constitution has no teeth.
It is not the American Constitution that has no teeth, it is the American people and I say this as an American. I am disgusted with how sad, feeble, and pathetic the average American is and how unwilling they are to fight for anything. Hell, they don't even fight for their right to keep guns, the very thing that will help them should they find a need to fight again, and the only thing that forces the government to listen to them.