Slashdot Mirror
Warrantless Wiretapping Decisions Issued By Ninth Circuit Court
sunbird writes "The Ninth Circuit yesterday issued two decisions in the Electronic Frontier Foundation's lawsuits against the National Security Agency (Jewel v. NSA) and the telecommunications companies (Hepting v. AT&T). EFF had argued in Hepting that the retroactive immunity passed by Congress was unconstitutional. The Ninth Circuit decision (PDF) upholds the immunity and the district court's dismissal of the case. Short of an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, this effectively ends the suit against the telecoms. In much better news, the same panel issued a decision (PDF) reversing the dismissal of the lawsuit against the N.S.A. and remanded the case back to the lower court for more proceedings. These cases have been previously discussed here."
Hey, why not? We already have unlimited detention without charges/evidence/probable cause. Might as well go for it all.
The NSA case will disappear in the name of national security or some such.
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
The court is corrupt on the face of this decision. Impeach the judges responsible.
Great. The Ninth Circuit just made it OK to use "I was just following orders" as a defense, if you're a telecom.
Richard Nixon would have loved this era.
Given the state of the laws in effect today, you'd be hard pressed to find someone who hasn't committed some kind of offense within the last month. It's more like "You're a criminal but you have nothing to be concerned about unless we want to enforce it"
This BS will never stop. These got bastards want a slave society and see nothing wrong with enlisting the corporate sellouts. Best prepare yourselves for war.
The point is that you have committed violations of the law... it doesn't matter if they're gross violations or even if the common person realizes they're violations. Most people commit some sort of violation every day (Ever go 56 in a 55 zone? That's breaking the law). Just because it's inconsequential, unenforced or otherwise ignored doesn't mean you're not breaking a law. We're heading in a direction where everything is illegal and we just accept a state that can arrest you for anything if they decide they want to.
Here is my 0.02 cents: neither government nor the courts are to blame, we the citizenry who elect our officials are to blame. We have the media reporting a disporportionate amount of bad news (crime, terrorism, etc) because it sells. In turn this leads people to conclude that times are not getting safer but more dangerous and, in some cases, may actually encourage criminal copycat behaviours because of the basic human tendency to jump to conclusions. The reality is that crime hasn't really skyrocketed and by all accounts might actually be rising at a much lower rate when compared with the population. We just have a distorted perception of rampant crime and danger as a result of what the media reports. So people, and in particular senior citizens due to diminished strength and mobility, experience an irrational amount of fear. Thus we turn to our elected officials to ask for greater safety and security in the form of more laws and restrictions. Hence, many of these laws are poorly written and concieved because they were born out of a knee jerk reaction versus careful thought as to whether these laws are: (a) really necessary and/or (b) will really achieve the end result. Politicians that are wise to the demands of their constituents will of course play the get tough on crime with the hope of winning votes and even push through legislation toughening sentences or expanding the dragnet of what constitutes criminality. In summary, a vicious cycle is created that no one is really able to break unless there were a sudden breakout of common sense. I would admire the politician that would take the "not get tough on crime stance" because crime is not rampant. I would admire the politican that would take the step back and reflect the negative effects of passing some laws instead of being concerned about some short term gain in the polls. In reality, we've no one to blame but ourselves. The courts are doing what we are basically asking them. We are willingly giving up liberty for the security that we are asking for. Thomas Jefferson noted that, "Those that would give up some liberty to gain security get none and deserve neither."