DOJ Fights To Bury Court Ruling On Government Surveillance

coolnumbr12 writes with this IBTimes excerpt: "The Justice Department may soon be forced to reveal a classified document that details unconstitutional surveillance of American citizens. The Justice Department has fought to keep the document secret for about a year, but a recent court order demands that they respond to a formal request filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation by next week, June 7, 2013."

Comments

All hail

[vikingpower]

the EFF !

exit vikingpower

Re:All hail

[the eric conspiracy]

Why would you expect the Republicans to be our watchdogs? They are just as much a part of the problem as the Democrats.

The who rotten mess of post-9/11 needs to be swept away. DHS, TSA, Patriot Act etc.

Re:All hail

[Anonymous Coward]

You can't seriously expect republicans to be watchdogs over things like this. While they claim to want small government, they simply offer a different kind of big government than democrats; that is, one that starts wars at every opportunity, spies on its citizens, and makes exception after exception for large corporations. Of course, democrats have some things in common with them, but they're both just trash that can't be trusted.

Re:All hail

[NatasRevol]

Yes, they both spend too much.

But Republicans want to spend on wars in foreign countries.
Democrats want to spend on 'helping' Americans.

I don't like either, but since I have to take one, I'll take the latter.

Re:All hail

[TheCarp]

This is very true. It seems to go kinda like this:
Republican: National security is at risk, we must curtail civil rights!
Democrat: Hey you can't take people's rights away like that....you have to do it like this...then you can get everything you want AND prosecute anyone who leaks on it
Republican: Ok Deal.
Democrat: Now lets raise taxes to pay for it
Republican: Not so fast, how about we backdoor a tax hike to make it look like something else, and make sure we can shield ourselves and our friends
Democrat: Ok deal.....oh and we can fight about it and suck up all the air time so nobody talks about civil liberties
Republican: Now you are getting it.

Re:All hail

[amiga3D]

Most frightening words in the English language, "We're from the government and we're here to help."

Re:All hail

[kelemvor4]

And replaced with what? Folgers Crystals?

Well, the crystals wouldn't be any LESS effective. Why not?

Re:All hail

[anagama]

But Republicans want to spend on wars in foreign countries.
Democrats want to spend on 'helping' Americans.

Are you fucking joking, trolling or high?

Seriously it has to be one of those options because if anything, Democrats have proven themselves to be as bloodthirsty as Republicans.

And before I get off topic on my rant, do note that the Bush era fuckwad who signed off on GWB's warrantless wiretapping and torture policies, is Obama's pick to head the FBI:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/30/james-comey-fbi-bush-nsa

Then what shall we talk about with respect to Obama:
Should it be his war on the 1st, 4th, or 5th amendment. His war on whistleblowers? Or just plain old war. Like tripling the number of troops in Afghanistan or conducting war with Libya without any congressional approval (goodbye War Powers Act, that little bit of post Viet Nam sanity designed to get us back to how the constitution says war is to started). Should we talk about how Obama tried to extend the Status of Forces Agreement in Iraq beyond the Dec 2011 expiration, failed, and as result pulled out the troops (and you fucking DNC hacks give him credit for ending Iraq when what he did was fail to extend it).

Maybe we should talk about Obama's opposition to the International Treaty to ban cluster bombs.

Maybe we should talk about how aggressively Obama has used the State Secrets Doctrine to shield torturers and those who spy on Americans. Maybe we should talk about why Obama as a candidate railed against NDAA, but recently cajoled Congress to pass it without any modifications, such as general estimate of how many Americans are illegally spied on.

WHATEVER. You fucking Democrat asshats are the biggest bunch of hypocrites around. Your ONLY reason to exist is to normalize the executive power grabs and constitution destroying behavior of the GOP. The entire country would be better off if you collectively had a heart attack and died, because then a real opposition to the GOP could evolve. Your ilk though, you're all talk and all back stabbing.

Democrats: The New GOP. Fresh face, same shit.

Re:All hail

[TheCarp]

Depends what you mean by a deal. Lots of things pass uncontroversially. Just this year, BEFORE the sequester debate came back, the pentagon's orders were reviewed, and where congress saw the Pentagon wanted 7 new C-130s, congress approved 14 of them. This was bipartisan....this is what they do all the time...in fact, over the life of the program, congress has approved 5000% more C-130s than the military ever ordered: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/03/10-6

Then there is the whole issue of their fake fights. Someone first pointed it out to me a few years back. Chart the minimum wage over time against inflation. You will find that it follows inflation on a long term average. Everyone who watches the issue knows this. However, congress wont just bake it in because, every few years it gives them an excuse to drag it out and beat the drums.

The Republicans beat the "too expensive to do business" drum, and the money flows into their coffers from all manner of group against raising the minimum wage. Employers all over the country are falling all over themselves to throw money at the GOP.

The Democrats beat the "workers are hit hard" drum, and labor unions, and all of their associated groups fall all over themselves to throw money a the Democrats.

Then in the end....they all "grudgingly agree" to do what they all knew was going to happen from the start....and put the issue away for the next few years until they can dust it off and do it all over again.

Thing is, you see it everywhere. Abotion? ever noticed how often anti-abortion laws blatantly violate Roe V Wade? Ever wonder, why professional lawmakers, people who have had time to study the system and work with it, would propose something that they know can't survive? Fact is, the public's opinion of abortion is a near 50/50 split, and hasn't changed in while. Perfect issue for them.

Propose a law, knowing it will never have to be implemented seriously for more than a few weeks. Money starts rolling in to both sides. Law gets passed, law gets struck down, pro-life and pro-choice groups both see a huge windfall.

Then, they take the budget, come up with an agreement, but call it a sequester, really tiny fractional cuts in the increase in discretionary spending, coupled with a small tax hike, thats all it was. They agreed to it, but structured it so they could pretend to disagree and "try to avoid it" for months, then blame each other when it "hit".

But that isn't really how they deal, thats just how they suck up all the air.

For the deals, look at how the PATRIOT act got passed or renewed. Look at how FISA courts got gutted and how the torture program went unprosecuted. They make deals all the time, they just don't talk about those deals.

Thank you EFF

[intermodal]

The justification for "classifying" information is pretty much lost on people working in government these days. Keep up the good work, EFF! This classification of government crimes against the constitution nonsense has to stop.

Re:Already Slashdotted...

[TWX]

Anybody got a copy to post?

Sure! [REDACTED] at [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] by [REDACTED] [REDACTED] suck [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED]. [REDACTED] [REDACTED] hamburger [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] turbine [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Joshua Tree [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] feces.

Surprised?

[CanHasDIY]

This is the same DOJ that's having Eric Holder investigate the crimes of... Eric Holder.

Sometimes I'm amazed at how much blatantly fucked, unconstitutional shit these assclowns manage to get away with... then I remember: bread and circuses.

Fuck.

Re:Already Slashdotted...

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

Summary: That such a ruling about unconstitutional activity exists is all that's publicly known. The methood of spying was ruled unconstitutional, but has not been revealed.

The EFF is currently suing to force revelation of the unconstitutional method. Next court step: government has until June 7 to respond why it should remain secret.

Note this is separate from the subject or topic of the spying.

If only...

[istartedi]

If only we had another department. A department that could bring justice to these rogue agencies. We could even have a separate one for each agency. For DoJ, We'd call it "The department of justice justice department". Of course it would only be a matter of time before it became corrupt. That's why it would be overseen by a department of justice justice department justice department. And after that? The Department of Turtles, which is all the way downtown.

The IRS is going to audit the EFF . . .

[PolygamousRanchKid]

. . . "audit", with "extreme prejudice" . . .