Last night, I filed an amicus brief with 71 other Democratic Members of Congress in two cases challenging the Bush Administration's illegal warrantless domestic spying.
It is very disturbing that, on the same day we learn that the NSA has been
secretly collecting the phone records of tens of millions of Americans, we also learn that the Department of Justice has abruptly
cancelled its investigation into the Agency's warrantless wiretapping program. These developments clearly point to the urgent need for oversight and review of this program. Congress has failed to provide this critical oversight which has led us to the courts.
Our brief makes clear that nearly 30 years ago Congress addressed the issue facing us today and determined that warrantless domestic spying on American soil is flatly prohibited. This is not a new concern. Warrantless wiretapping of U.S. citizens was exposed as a serious problem in the mid-1970s. The Church Committee investigated this activity for years receiving testimony from hundreds of witnesses, issuing 14 reports and collecting over 50,000 pages of records. The result? With support from the National Security Agency (NSA), Congress carefully crafted the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to require that any intelligence agency wiretap activity must be approved by a FISA court. To this date, that law stands as the exclusive and exhaustive authority to wiretap Americans in the name of fighting terrorism.
Our brief filing is supported by the public statements of
former NSA Director Bobby Ray Inman who has come forward to confirm that the Administration failed to obey the law with its warrantless eavesdropping. Having led the NSA when the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was drafted, Inman declared "this activity is not authorized." He is right. Congress never authorized it and the Authorization for Use of Military Force against Afghanistan did not provide the President the sweeping authority he is now claiming.
The cases
ACLU v. NSA and
CCR v. Bush are pending in Detroit and New York, and the plaintiffs are seeking summary judgment and an injunction against the government to stop the program immediately. The government must file its responses by the end of next week in both cases.
I am very encouraged that, in a very short period of time, a strong showing of House Democrats joined me in this legal challenge. This success follows the court case against the administration's
unconstitutional passage of the DRA, in which the top ranking Democrats from 8 Committees joined me as plaintiffs. These actions underscore our commitment as Democrats to right the wrongs of this administration and to do so with cohesiveness and determination.