The Raw Story | Telco immunity faces first court challenge

The immunity section of the FISA Amendments Act gives the Attorney General the authority to dismiss civil lawsuits against phone and Internet providers who abetted warrantless surveillance on the grounds that the surveillance was authorized by the president and that the phone companies were told it was legal.

"That is a just a bare and unconstitutional act that for which there simply is no precedent whatsoever," Harvey Grossman, an American Civil Liberties Union representing the plaintiffs, tells RAW STORY. "Congress simply doesn't have the power to rewrite the 4th amendment."

Well folks, the spam has hit the pan and it's sizzling....this will end up before the USSC which has been stuffed with right wing surrogates. So how do you think this will go? Will the USSC decide this is a dictatorship with the power to rewrite the Constitution in the hands of the President? Certainly a goal that republicans have held for a long long time.

How do you think the USSC will vote and why?

__________________
I'm Proud I never Voted For Bush!



PAT PAULSEN FOR PRESIDENT

Seems pretty clear-cut to me, from a Constitutional perspective, and should be struck down. Trouble is, I don't think we can count on this SCOTUS to be apolitical, even though that's their job.

I think they'll weasel-word out of an actual definitive ruling. Decisive, bold leadership is out of fashion. Split decision, 6-3, ultimately allowing it, with a lot of vague spin.

__________________
"Oh, bother", said Pooh, as he chambered another round...

The Constitution's been taking hits for 200 years. Get used to it already.

They're all a bunch of assholes.

__________________
"Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states...Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds."



~Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Other than a split decision of 5-4 I agree. So dies the Constitution. Which is funny because the right wingers are the ones who most often claim to be the protectors of it.

__________________
I'm Proud I never Voted For Bush!



PAT PAULSEN FOR PRESIDENT

No doubt this is what the right wingers will say...

__________________
I'm Proud I never Voted For Bush!



PAT PAULSEN FOR PRESIDENT

Something else that is funny is the sheer amount of Democrats that supported the bill.

Yes, and they'd be right. Although that says more about the Constitution than it does about us, in my opinion.

__________________
"Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states...Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds."



~Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

But they didn't support the misuse of the powers granted in that bill. The bill provided for obtaining warrants yet Bush and his minions didn't see the need to do so.

__________________
I'm Proud I never Voted For Bush!



PAT PAULSEN FOR PRESIDENT

Hahahahahahahahaha....right wingers being right....what will they think of next.

__________________
I'm Proud I never Voted For Bush!



PAT PAULSEN FOR PRESIDENT

Oh puh-leeze. If that were true they wouldn't have voted for the bill. If there is anything bad in a bill, one should vote no and keep voting no until an acceptable alternative is offered.

__________________


"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty." Thomas Jefferson

Walter Mondale: "George Bush doesn't have the manhood to apologize." George Bush: "Well, on the manhood thing, I'll put mine up against his any time."