ACLU considering Supreme Court appeal over NSA spying

Raw Story | July 6, 2007
Nick Juliano

The American Civil Liberties said Friday it is considering an appeal to the Supreme Court after a lower court threw out its case against the National Security Agency over an illegal domestic spying program authorized by the Bush administration.

“We are deeply disappointed by today's decision that insulates the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance activities from judicial review and deprives Americans of any ability to challenge the illegal surveillance of their telephone calls and e-mails," ACLU legal director Steven Shapiro said in a prepared statement.

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals decision Friday dismissed the ACLU's lawsuit on the grounds that the plantiffs, who included prominent journalists, scholars and attorneys, did not have legal standing to bring the case because they could not prove their phones had been tapped by the NSA. The 2-1 ruling overturned a lower court's injunction against the surveillance program.

"“It is important to emphasize that the court today did not uphold the legality of the government's warrantless surveillance activity," Shapiro said. "Indeed, the only judge to discuss the merits clearly and unequivocally declared that the warrantless surveillance was unlawful."

ACLU lawyers are "reviewing all of our legal options, including taking this challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court," he said. Meanwhile, the ACLU is urging Congress to exercise its oversight authority to investigate the spying program, which allows the NSA to monitor phone calls between people in the US and terrorism suspects abroad without first securing a warrant.

The Senate Judiciary Committee last month subpoenaed the White House requesting documents related to the NSA program, with a deadline for compliance of July 18. The White House has so far refused to turn over the requested surveillance-program information.

"There is a dark cloud over the White House's warrantless wiretapping program," said Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy in a statement released Friday, "and a full response to the outstanding subpoena from the Senate Judiciary Committee by this Administration would be a good start to clearing the air and moving forward in ways that allow us to better protect against terrorists while honoring the rule of law and the liberties of law-abiding Americans.”