Appeals Court Allows 'Classified, But Leaked' Evidence To Be Used In Warrantless Wiretap Case

from the good-news-for-justice dept

We've covered the ridiculous hoops the gov't made people go through to prove that a document that the gov't itself leaked could be used in a trial to prove that the gov't was wiretapping people without warrants. Despite all the hurdles, a court ruled that the document could, in fact, be used. Some had hoped that, after the Obama administration took over, it would stop trying to kill this particular case, but that didn't happen. In fact, the Obama administration made the same claims as before, and continued to appeal the ruling. However, an appeals court has shot the administration down and allowed the document to be used. The government, of course, will likely appeal.

The whole situation still seems ridiculous. In business, if a confidential document is made public, and many people have seen it, it's no longer considered confidential. Yet, here, even though many, many people have seen the document outlining the warrantless wiretapping, the gov't still wants to pretend that it's totally secret -- in part, because it doesn't want its warrantless wiretapping program tested in court. This case is very important from a civil liberties perspective, because previous attempts to get a court to weigh in on such warrantless wiretaps failed -- due to the fact that, without specific evidence that one of the parties filing the lawsuit was actually wiretapped without a warrant, they had no standing to sue.

Every time we write about this case, we get angry comments from people claiming that we should shut up and this case should go away because the gov't needs to protect us from terrorists. I have no doubt that the gov't does, in fact, need to do quite a lot of work every single day to help protect us from those who want to kill Americans. But, there is a legal process for that, and it involves getting warrants if you want to wiretap someone. The process of getting a warrant is not hard. In fact, if you need a wiretap in a rush and can't wait for the warrant, you can go ahead with the wiretap and then go back afterwards to get the warrant. This is an important check on the ability of the gov't to spy on its citizens, and it makes sure the process is not abused (as it has been in the past). It's difficult to see how anyone who actually believes in the right to a free society could support a gov't's ability to spy on folks without any check on that power. Hopefully this case does move forward, and the rule of law is upheld where it concerns getting a warrant before wiretapping someone within this country.

Filed Under: al-harmain, obama, warrantless wiretap

Obama Adminstration Sides With Bush Administration In Opposing Warrantless Wiretap Lawsuit

from the too-bad dept

Earlier this month, we noted that a court was allowing an important lawsuit over warrantless wiretapping by the last administration to move forward in the courts. The case was an odd one, involving the accidental leak of a classified document that effectively admits that the law was broken. However, since the document is classified, the court system and everyone involved in the case has to perform one of the stupidest legal dances ever in order to pretend that no one has seen a document that they've all seen. The whole thing is a bit farcical. Not surprisingly, the Bush administration vehemently opposed letting this case move forward -- but many weren't sure how the Obama administration would deal with it. Well, now we know. They've put forth a filing in the case effectively agreeing with the Bush administration that the case should not move forward. There may be political reasons for doing so, but it's unfortunate that it looks like the new administration is playing the same game as the last administration when it comes to burying the details on the almost certainly illegal warrantless wiretapping program.

Filed Under: al-harmain, obama, warrantless wiretap

Warrantless Wiretapping Lawsuit Allowed To Move Forward Despite Ridiculous Levels Of Secrecy

from the good-news-for-civil-liberties dept

Last year, we wrote about the absolutely ridiculous limitations placed on the lawyers pushing forward on behalf of the Al-Harmain Islamic Foundation to sue the federal government for warrantless wiretapping. As discussed, courts have thrown out most legal challenges by groups like the ACLU, because those groups have no proof that they were spied on -- thus they have no legal standing in the eyes of the law. The one exception to this is Al-Harmain, because the government accidentally revealed a classified document admitting that it spied on the group without a warrant. Except... even though the government revealed the document, in a bizarre twist, it's demanding that the document is still secret, and it seems that Al-Harmain's lawyers can barely even mention the document's existence, let alone the contents of it. The earlier post goes through some of the ridiculous twists and turns Al-Harmain's lawyers needed to go through (including responding to a Justice Dept. filing that the lawyers weren't even allowed to read).

With all of that to go up against, it seemed quite likely that the government would succeed in getting the case thrown out -- but amazingly, it appears that the lawsuit will go forward and the lawyers in question will get security clearance, and the judge in the case will actually be allowed to see the "secret document" that isn't really that secret any more. This may be the one and only case that can actually challenge the legality of the federal government's warrantless wiretapping program, so this is fantastic news.

Filed Under: al-harmain, warrantless wiretap