We do have Laws and Courts for a reason(s). Or at least we used to.
And under that system we have certain rights to bring suit, when our rights have been infringed.
So ... Let the Lawsuits begin:
Group to sue over NSA surveillance
by David Jackson, usatoday.com -- July 8, 2013
[...]
A privacy rights group plans to ask the Supreme Court on Monday to stop the NSA phone surveillance program that collects the telephone records of millions of Americans.
It's the latest in a string of lawsuits over NSA activities.
[...]
"The group, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, says it is taking the extraordinary legal step of going directly to the Supreme Court because the sweeping collection of the phone records of American citizens has created 'exceptional circumstances' that only the nation's highest court can address.
And not to be left out of the high-stakes legal wrangling, a few other groups have stepped up to act a brake on the out of bounds secret surveillance; being done to us, in our names:
Privacy Group to Ask Supreme Court to Stop N.S.A.’s Phone Spying Program
by James Risen, nytimes.com -- July 7, 2013
[...]
Within days of the disclosure of the court order, the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit in federal court in New York. Separately, Larry Klayman, a conservative lawyer who runs a group called Freedom Watch, filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court in Washington on behalf of Verizon customers.
Marc Rotenberg, the executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said his group’s lawsuit would be the first to directly challenge the legal authority of the FISA court to approve the phone records’ collection under the Patriot Act.
Alan Butler, a lawyer for the group, said the judge “lacked the authority to require production of all domestic call detail records.” He noted that the Patriot Act provision cited by the FISA court required that the business records produced be “relevant” to an authorized national security investigation. “It is simply implausible that all call detail records are relevant,” Mr. Butler said.
[...]
Someone should bring up the fact that before the FISA Court there is NO Adversarial form of argument. Only the prosecution presents their
evidence rationales on behalf of the NSA.
There is NO lawyer for the "defendants" -- We the People.
Even though we pay their salaries.
Long as they're at it, here are a few more ways, our current system of secret surveillance, steps on, disregards, and ultimately infringes on our rights as American Suspects Citizens, under our Constitutional form of Government:
What is Section 215?
[...]
Under Section 215, the government can apply to the FISA court to compel businesses (like Verizon) to hand over user records. Here's what Slate wrote about Section 215 in a 2003 guide to the Patriot Act:
Section 215 modifies the rules on records searches. Post-Patriot Act, third-party holders of your financial, library, travel, video rental, phone, medical, church, synagogue, and mosque records can be searched without your knowledge or consent, providing the government says it's trying to protect against terrorism.
As Section 215 stands today -- in the reauthorized version of the Patriot Act passed in 2005 -- "tangible things" (aka user data) sought in a FISA order "must be 'relevant' to an authorized preliminary or full investigation to obtain foreign intelligence information not concerning a U.S. person or to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities." It also established congressional oversight for the FISA program, requiring the DOJ to conduct an audit of the program and the "effectiveness" of Section 215, and to submit an unclassified report on the audit to the House and Senate Committees on the Judiciary and Intelligence.
[...]
This Is What Section 215 of the Patriot Act Does
by Emma Roller, slate.com -- June 7, 2013
What is Section 215?
[...]
* The FBI need not show probable cause, nor even reasonable grounds to believe, that the person whose records it seeks is engaged in criminal activity.
* The FBI need not have any suspicion that the subject of the investigation is a foreign power or agent of a foreign power.
* The FBI can investigate United States persons based in part on their exercise of First Amendment rights, and it can investigate non-United States persons based solely on their exercise of First Amendment rights.
For example, the FBI could spy on a person because they don't like the books she reads, or because they don't like the web sites she visits. They could spy on her because she wrote a letter to the editor that criticized government policy.
[...]
Reform the Patriot Act |
Section 215
ACLU -- Because Freedom Can't Protect Itself
Let the Lawsuits begin ... may they somehow find a modicum of justice.
If only the Constitution were a personal email -- maybe then the Congress and the NSA -- might read it!
And once again, begin to treat it with the respect and authority it deserves. That we all deserve ...