US Supreme Court Will Decide on Warrantless WireTapping

Susanne Posel
Occupy Corporatism
May 22, 2012

 

 

 

 

Americans are becoming increasingly concerned about the extreme surveillance they endure at the hands of the US government.

Nearly all phone calls and digital communications are being intercepted by US governmental agencies for surveillance to decipher whether or not average American citizens are engaged in terrorist activities.

The US Supreme Court will be ruling whether or not a collection of lawyers, human rights activists and journalists may legally challenge the US government over their encompassing use of electronic surveillance.

In Clapper v. Amnesty International USA, advocates assert that this 2008 law encroaches upon the 4th Amendment that protects Americans from unreasonable searches and seizures.

The US government attempted to have the original ruling over turned by “standing” to challenge the law; however a US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit turned down the government’s request.

The plaintiffs, represented by the ACLU, voiced concerns about the US government’s targeting of their foreign contacts.

Following 9/11, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) forced the US government to obtain a search warrant from a judge to spy on phone calls involving US citizens and “suspected terrorist”.

During the Bush administration, in 2005, “warrantless wiretapping” with the justification of intercepting international phone conversations (as well as emails and other digital communications) to monitor potential terrorist plots became common place.

Three years later, Congress responded to this unconstitutional practice by broadening the US Attorney General and director of National Security’s power to monitor communications within America.

Congress decreed that as long as the party being surveyed were believed to be foreigners located outside of the US, the surveillance was acceptable.

The ACLU filed suit within days of the amendments becoming law, citing that covert orders permitted by officials would be utilized to shift the focus of surveillance from foreigners to American citizens.

The ACLU stated in court that this law “allows the government to collect these communications en masse without specifying the individuals or facilities to be monitored; without observing meaningful limitations on the retention, analysis, and dissemination of acquired information; without individualized warrants based on criminal or foreign intelligence probable cause; and without prior judicial or even administrative determinations that the targets of surveillance are foreign agents or connected in any way, however remotely, to terrorism.”

Because of this fact, the plaintiffs have reasonable fear that their communications are being intercepted by US government agencies for the purpose of surveillance, regardless of whether or not that assumption is justified.

The ACLU says that without standing to question FISA, there is no judicial oversight regarding legal mandates set forth by Congress to the benefit of false flag operations to facilitate the superfluous surveillance of Americans.

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