The Clipboard: A Green Light to Spy

From an article¹:

Anyone who worries that the war on terrorism will inspire an era of unprecedented government spying on Americans has new cause for concern today. The top-secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review handed the government broad new authority yesterday to wiretap phone calls, intercept mail and spy on Internet use of ordinary Americans. The Supreme Court and Congress should reverse this misguided ruling. (link - registration required)

An editorial from the New York Times.

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Complete text of the article, A Green Light to Spy, by the Editors of the New York Times (registration required for offsite link)

Anyone who worries that the war on terrorism will inspire an era of unprecedented government spying on Americans has new cause for concern today. The top-secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review handed the government broad new authority yesterday to wiretap phone calls, intercept mail and spy on Internet use of ordinary Americans. The Supreme Court and Congress should reverse this misguided ruling.

In May the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court, a lower tribunal established in 1978 to oversee domestic spying by the government, issued a stern rebuke to the Justice Department for its practices. The court held, 7 to 0, that in ordinary criminal prosecutions the government had improperly used the more lenient standard the law allows for collecting information on foreign spies and terrorists. The court identified 75 instances in which the F.B.I. had abused its authority, in some cases by making false statements in eavesdropping applications.

The appellate court, in its ruling yesterday, reversed that decision. The appellate ruling is procedurally troubling. The court's sessions are held in secret, and the government is the only party allowed to appear before it. The members of the court are hand-picked by Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Ignoring the diversity of views on the federal bench, he selected three judges appointed by President Ronald Reagan. The combination of one-sided arguments and one-sided judges hardly instills confidence in the court's decisions.

More disturbing, though, is the court's substantive decision and the way the Justice Department is interpreting it. The decision gives the government a green light to remove the separation that has long existed between officials conducting surveillance on suspected foreign agents and criminal prosecutors investigating crimes. Attorney General John Ashcroft has announced that he intends to use it to sharply increase the number of domestic wiretaps, and that he will add lawyers at the F.B.I. and at federal prosecutors' offices around the country to hurry the process along.

The Supreme Court should step in to restore the lower court's ruling, and Congress should redraft its statutes to clear up any confusion about what the law requires. One of the biggest challenges the nation faces is fighting foreign enemies without sacrificing civil liberties at home. Yesterday's ruling failed to rise to that challenge.

reference=http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/19/opinion/19TUE2.html