I took great delight in making some consverative/libertarian types' heads spin today . . .

[markpkessinger]

. . . particularly those who are constantly bewailing the evils of "big government" or "government intrusion," by directing them to this NY Times article, which reports on the Supreme Court's refusal to hear a challenge to a federal law that authorized intercepting international communications involving Americans, and pointing out which Justices were NOT among those refusing the appeal.

[font size=5]Supreme Court Rejects Challenge to Surveillance Law[/font]
[font size =1 color="gray"]By ADAM LIPTAK
Published: February 26, 2013[/font]

WASHINGTON — In a 5-to-4 decision that broke along ideological lines, the Supreme Court on Tuesday turned back a challenge to a federal law that authorized intercepting international communications involving Americans.

Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. said that the journalists, lawyers and human rights advocates who challenged the constitutionality of the law could not show they had been harmed by it and so lacked standing to sue. Their fear that they would be subject to surveillance in the future was too speculative to establish standing, he wrote.

Justice Alito also rejected arguments based on the steps the plaintiffs had taken to escape surveillance, including traveling to meet sources and clients in person rather than talking to them over the phone. “They cannot manufacture standing by incurring costs in anticipation of non-imminent harms,” he wrote of the plaintiffs.

< . . . . >

In dissent, Justice Stephen G. Breyer wrote that the harm claimed by the plaintiffs was not speculative. “Indeed,” he wrote, “it is as likely to take place as are most future events that common-sense inference and ordinary knowledge of human nature tell us will happen.” Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan joined his dissenting opinion.

< . . . . >

[annabanana]

1. for me, "delight" isn't a good word. Although I can understand

your wanting to bring it to their attention...

[markpkessinger]

2. The "delight" isn't in the decision . . .

. . . but I must admit I have come to the point where I take a certain perverse delight in pointing out conservative hypocrisy whenever I can.

[AndyA]

3. Did you have protective gear on in case their heads exploded?

It can be quite messy to those close by.

Had a friend once who put a right winger in their place by saying, "Please, do yourself a favor a SHUT UP. You're only showing your ignorance because you're flat out wrong--the only place you would have heard that was on Rush or Faux News, and it proves that you don't care about yourself to get the truth, instead you just allow people to tell you lies and not only do you believe them, but you spread them around. Just stop, I love you and you've been a good friend for a long time, and I care about you a lot, but you should be ashamed of yourself for not getting the facts."

The young lady didn't know what to say.