Another Clinton Lackey Overturns Part of FISA

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Orin Kerr:

District Judge Ann Aiken of the United States District Court in Oregon has just handed down a surprising opinion striking down parts of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and specifically 50 U.S.C. §§ 1804 and 1823, as facially unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment.

I would add:

Federal Judicial Service:
Judge, U. S. District Court, District of Oregon
Nominated by William J. Clinton on January 7, 1997

Just another opinion that will be overturned once again by the Supreme Court.  We all know the 9th won’t overturn it but the Supremes will.

UPDATE

Orin with his thoughts on the ruling:

My tentative bottom line: I found Judge Aiken’s decision unpersuasive on the question of Article III standing. On the merits of the Fourth Amendment issue, I think the law is just too murky to call this one way or the other: Judge Aiken’s result appears plausible, although so does the contrary result embraced in 2002 by the Foreign Intelligence Court of Review.

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Congresspersons Peter Hoekstra (R) and Heather Wilson (R) were having a good discussion on FISA on the floor of the House yesterday. Wilson is a former military intelligence officer and has all kinds of great insight.

She remarked on a conversation she had with a soldier in Iraq who complained that if he saw a jihadi using a telephone he could shot the guy, but not listen in on the call.

Still not ONE case of any American citizen whose rights have been violated by the Bush Administration for “abusing” FISA.

Isn’t this the same state that allows terrorists to form a terror training camp?

Still not ONE case of any American citizen whose rights have been violated by the Bush Administration for “abusing” FISA.

Well, except for the guy that sued for being wrongfully imprisoned for a month.

She remarked on a conversation she had with a soldier in Iraq who complained that if he saw a jihadi using a telephone he could shot the guy, but not listen in on the call.

If FISA couldn’t be applied, this tells me that it couldn’t be shown that there’s a reasonable chance the guy is a jihadi, and your friend just likes shooting random people on hunches.

Mike’s America, the right-wing apologist, wrote, “Still not ONE case of any American citizen whose rights have been violated by the Bush Administration for ‘abusing’ FISA.”

This appears to be a case of the “big lie” strategy. It involves a speaker repeating a falsehood, in an attempt to have people believe that it must be true.

However, anyone who has read the decision (I did, every word) knows that the central issue was PRECISELY whether this use of FISA was an abuse by the Executive Branch, because it was a VIOLATION of the Fourth Amendment.

The plaintiff, American citizen Brandon Mayfield, won a summary judgment and was granted declaratory relief.

The judge definitely supported the claim that this American citizen’s rights were violated by the Bush Administration.

The Administration itself claimed FISA as justification for this violation, but as the judge pointed out, FISA does not trump the Constitution. (It’s the other way around, if they are found to be in conflict.)

So let’s review:

“ONE case” — This case is one case.

“of any American citizen” — Brandon Mayfield is an American citizen.

“whose rights have been violated” — The Fourth Amendment rights of Mr. Mayfield were violated.

“by the Bush Administration” — It’s absolutely uncontroversial who the defendants were in this case.

“for ‘abusing’ FISA.” — Yes, they followed FISA procedures, and they abrogated fundamental human and legal rights of Mr. Mayfield.

So whine all you want about the liberal judge, or your disagreement with the analysis. Keep your hopes up that another court will see it differently, if you think your due process rights are less important than the convenience of the Executive Branch when conducting criminal investigations.

But you’re only fooling yourself if you actually believe that no American’s rights have ever been trampled by FISA abuse. That’s what this case was ABOUT. Duh.

Sorry Jeffmo… But unless you can point me to the court documents on the case, not some left wing brain wash web site, I’m not buying it.

You folks have ZERO credibility for intellectual integrity. There’s no lie that’s beyond your corrupted reasoning to repeat.