Another bad day in court for the US administration
Thursday, August 17th, 2006A US programme to tap some phones without warrants is unconstitutional, and must be halted at once, a federal judge in Detroit has ruled.
The scheme, approved by President George W Bush in 2001, involves tapping conversations between some callers in the US and people in other countries.
The American Civil Liberties Union brought the case against the programme, which was uncovered by the US media.
The US government has previously insisted that the scheme is legal.
So following on from the Geneva conventions ruling by the US Supreme Court it looks like another of the Bush administration’s claims has been taken apart by the US legal system.
It is a pretty scary thought that anyone should be allowed to tap a phone without first giving justification to a court; the fact that the US government doesn’t need to publically lodge its request makes it even more difficult to justify.
For the record I don’t believe that anyone should be trusted with that kind of power; I’m not willing to assume that any politician will only tap people that deserve to be tapped; if the evidence is there then a court will grant a warrent for it.
In an Irish context this ties somewhat into the upcoming DRI challenge to Irish data retention laws; at present there are no access restrictions to the mobile and fixed-line data that is held for three years under Irish law meaning that a Garda would need no real justification to view your personal information.
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