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THE GUTTING OF FISA SAFEGUARDS
For five years, on presidential orders, the National Security Agency
has been reading email and tapping phones without a warrant - actions
explicitly forbidden by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of
1978.
Despite this 30-year precedent, Congress and the
president colluded in a last-minute Patriot-Act-style vote just before
the 2007 summer recess. The resulting legislation lifts longstanding
protections between government spying and Americans’
international communications. Congress’ "Police America
Act” now gives the NSA a blank check to wiretap Americans
without judicial oversight.
The ACLU urged members of Congress to resist the
president's scare tactics, but caving to White House bullying and base
political fears, the Democratic leadership agreed to these reckless
changes.
CHALLENGING GOVERNMENT SPYING ABUSES
The ACLU continues to fight the Bush administration’s myriad
expansions to domestic spying. We won the first round of our ACLU
v. NSA lawsuit, in which a federal judge declared the program
unconstitutional. The Sixth Circuit appeals court dismissed the case,
while refusing to rule on the legality of the program, and the ACLU and
its clients will continue to pursue this fight, all the way to the U.S.
Supreme Court if necessary.
Because of our lawsuits, federal courts have also
ruled against Patriot Act provisions that enable abusive FBI "National
Security Letter” demands for personal records. We have filed
Freedom of Information Act requests on behalf of hundreds of
organizations and individuals around the country to expose wrongful FBI
and Pentagon spying.
CHALLENGING FBI
ABUSE OF NATIONAL SECURITY LETTERS
The Patriot Act continues to threaten civil liberties as the FBI
delivers tens of thousands of National Security Letters that demand
personal records from businesses, and gags recipients from telling
anyone about the letter.
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ACLU v.
NSA
In the first federal challenge ever argued against the president's NSA
spying program, the ACLU defeated the Bush administration in 2006, when
Judge Anna Diggs Taylor ruled "[I]t was never
the intent of the Framers to give the President such unfettered
control, particularly where his actions blatantly disregard the
parameters clearly enumerated in the Bill of Rights." The case was
dismissed after the government’s appeal and the ACLU is
preparing its next steps.
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DEMANDING THE
TRUTH ABOUT GOVERNMENT SPYING
The FBI and Pentagon are watching and keeping files on peaceful
activists, and infiltrating groups like Greenpeace and PETA with
informants. In January 2007, the president announced that he's allowed
to open Americans' mail, and we also learned about undisclosed Pentagon
and CIA demands for citizens' financial records.
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No American is beneath the law's protection. And
no one - not even a U.S. president - is above the law's limits. Our
fundamental system of checks and balances must be maintained if
American democracy is to be preserved.
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