Today, a Michigan federal judge has ruled that the surveillance program carried out by the government is unconstitutional and illegal. In her 44 page memorandum opinion, Judge Anna Diggs Taylor said that the program "violates the [Administrative Procedures Act]; the Separation of Powers doctrine; the First and Fourth Amendments of the United States Constitution; and the statutory law." In her memorandum opinion Judge Taylor also says that the "Plaintiffs have prevailed, and the public interest is clear, in this matter."
A White House statement said that the White House and the Justice Department "couldn't disagree more with this ruling." The statement went on to say that the Terrorist Surveillance Program (TSP) "only targets international phone calls coming into or out of the United States where one of the parties on the call is a suspected Al Qaeda or affiliated terrorist."
The lawsuit was brought by the ACLU against the National Security Agency/Central Security Service and Lieutenant General Keith B. Alexander, Director of the National Security Agency and Chief of the Central Security Service.
I have posted on this issue many other times and the following links are of those posts. These posts contain my position on this issue. This new development is one step in the right direction and more rulings like this one are sure to follow.
May 14, 2006
March 10, 2006 (in this post I called for a lawsuit, which finally has come)
February 28, 2006
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