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Federal Prosecutors, In a Policy Shift, Cite Warrantless Wiretaps As Evidence

schwit1 sends this quote from the NY Times "The Justice Department for the first time has notified a criminal defendant that evidence being used against him came from a warrantless wiretap, a move that is expected to set up a Supreme Court test of whether such eavesdropping is constitutional. The government's notice allows the defendant's lawyer to ask a court to suppress the evidence by arguing that it derived from unconstitutional surveillance, setting in motion judicial review of the eavesdropping. ... The practice contradicted what [Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr.] had told the Supreme Court last year in a case challenging the law, the FISA Amendments Act of 2008. Legalizing a form of the Bush administration’s program of warrantless surveillance, the law authorized the government to wiretap Americans’ e-mails and phone calls without an individual court order and on domestic soil so long as the surveillance is “targeted” at a foreigner abroad. A group of plaintiffs led by Amnesty International had challenged the law as unconstitutional. But Mr. Verrilli last year urged the Supreme Court to dismiss the case because those plaintiffs could not prove that they had been wiretapped. In making that argument, he said a defendant who faced evidence derived from the law would have proper legal standing and would be notified, so dismissing the lawsuit by Amnesty International would not close the door to judicial review of the 2008 law. The court accepted that logic, voting 5-to-4 to dismiss the case."

5 of 321 comments (clear)

  1. I can't wait until we vote Bush/Cheney out by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    This crap is never going to stop as long as the evil Rethuglicans are in power.

  2. Re:Can someone remind me? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    How are we, the U.S., different from East Germany?

    The US has an independent press that's always critical of the government, no matter which politcal party is in power, like the New York Times.

  3. Re:Can someone remind me? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    In East Germany if you liked your health insurance you got to keep it.

  4. POLICE STATE OF THE FREE! by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 1, Funny

    And the home, of the alleged.

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."
  5. Re:Can someone remind me? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    So you're saying that America is better

    fuck yeah america is better

    USA USA USA