Unreasonable Searches - Phone and Email

Over the last week or two we have been inundated with news about the Bush Administration's policy of intercepting International phone communications and email communications WITHOUT A WARRANT. These are American citizens we are talking about here. American citizens whose rights are supposedly protected by the Constitution of the United States of America.

About 230 years ago, our forefathers fought to become independent and free of the tyrannical rule of the English king. About 215 years ago, our founding fathers, after great deliberation, drafted and signed the Constitution. Shortly thereafter, those same founding fathers drafted and enacted The Bill of Rights. One of the primary rights granted to ALL US citizens is the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.

The US Supreme Court has defined searches protected by the Fourth Amendment to include wiretapping of telephone conversations. Email correspondence is similarly protected.

About 30 years ago, the US Congress, in reaction to efforts by the Nixon Administration to spy on American citizens without a warrant, passed a law that allows the federal government to obtain a warrant from a special court. The warrant can be obtained ex parte (without notifying the person whose correspondence will be searched. It can also be done after the fact - now the government can actually apply for the warrant up to 48 hours AFTER the phone lines have been tapped. The goal is to give the government as much flexibility as possible without completely eviscerating the whole goal of the Fourth Amendment - requiring an unbiased third party - a court - to approve the search so the government does not have absolute power.

Well, the Bush Administration - especially Dick Cheney - really wants to reassert the power of the executive branch. And so they have.... In secret.

Interesting that this whole concept of "spying on Americans without a warrant" was something that was done in complete secrecy. The Bush Administration apparently didn't even notify Congress that it had unilaterally decided that it didn't need to comply with the FISA warrant requirements. It makes you wonder if they knew they were breaking the law - or at least stretching it to its farthest point and then some.

The Bush Administration claims that it has the power to spy on Americans without a warrant based on the implied power granted to the President in the Constitution. Isn't that interesting.... They who argue so strenuously that judges should read the Constitution strictly and not find implied rights in it now want to find implied rights because it benefits them. Such hypocrisy...

Their other supposed justification is that Congress granted the President the power to spy on Americans without a warrant when it authorized the President to pursue the war on terror with all necessary force. Again they are implying authority that was never granted and frankly, never intended.

So what does all this come down to? It really is about power. The Bush-Cheney Administration wants to have unfettered power to do whatever they want. They want to answer to nobody. Not Congress; not the Courts; not the press; and not the American people.

The Bush-Cheney dream really looks an awful lot like the power of the King of England that the founding fathers fought so hard to be free of. In fact, it looks a lot like the dictatorship in Iraq that the Bush-Cheney clan overthrew after contorting and distorting the evidence against him.

The American People need to stand up or we will soon be subject to an all-powerful regime where even voices questioning policy will be muzzled and people objecting to policy in public will be jailed.

Stand up for your rights - All of them!

For an exceptionally thorough analysis of this issue and a debunking of the myths and arguments put out by the Bush Administration and its media lapdogs, go to Media Matters.