Surveillance update

A couple of days ago I wrote about the privatizing and expanding of surveillance. Today a third Federal judge ruled that the NSA’s warrantless eavesdropping during the Bush administration was illegal. None of the cases have moved forward Today’s ruling was also a scathing repudiation of the Obama Dept. of Justice for continuing the Bush argument that the plaintiffs can’t prove that they were victims of the illegal surveillance and therefore have no standing to sue and that the NSA was such a vital “state secret” that it is effectively beyond the law because the courts are barred from ruling on its legality.

Beyond that is the fact that the penalty for this is 5 years in prison and a fine of $10.000 per incident. When Federal agencies are allowed to operate beyond the law sooner or later they will go after targets for purely political reasons. Both Hoover’s FBI and the CIA did.

The Rule of Law is paramount in a democracy despite security considerations. No judge would have ruled against a warrant in the aftermath of 9/11. Laws that were passed in its aftermath gave all law enforcement agencies the widest latitude possible. It is almost certain no one will ever be tried to answer for these actions and so abuses are just a certain to arise in the future.