Supreme Court’s ruling in Hamdan means warrantless eavesdropping is clearly illegal
By: Glenn Greenwald on Sunday, July 9th, 2006
Ever since the Supreme Court in the Hamdan case ruled that the Bush administration’s Guantanamo Bay military commissions violate both federal law and the Geneva Conventions, the President has been paying lip service to his "willingness" to comply with that ruling. But the Court’s ruling goes far beyond the limited question of whether military commissions are legal. To arrive at its decision, the Court emphatically rejected the administration’s radical theories of executive power, and in doing so, rendered entirely discredited the administration’s only defenses for eavesdropping on Americans without the warrants required by law.
Actual compliance with the Court’s ruling, then, compels the administration to immediately cease eavesdropping on Americans in violation of FISA. If the administration continues these programs now, then they are openly defying the Court and the law with a brazeness and contempt for the rule of law that would be unprecedented even for them.much, much more at:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/posts/2006/07/09/supreme-courts-ruling-in-hamdan-means-warrantless-eavesdropping-is-clearly-illegal/#more-8805