Wiretapping Ruling
I don't see this ruling as important. It's phase one.
Predictably, the ruling was appealed, and the ruling is stayed pending appeal. That means the program continues.
There is only one court that matters in this case, and it's the Supreme Court. Nothing any judge says in the meantime -- for or against the wiretapping program -- really matters.
I will say that I find the judge's language striking. She says "the president of the United States ... has undisputedly violated the Fourth [Amendment] in failing to procure judicial orders." But many judges -- some of them higher up than she is -- have disputed precisely this. So I don't know where she gets off saying that, and it makes me question her overall judgment.
Predictably, the ruling was appealed, and the ruling is stayed pending appeal. That means the program continues.
There is only one court that matters in this case, and it's the Supreme Court. Nothing any judge says in the meantime -- for or against the wiretapping program -- really matters.
I will say that I find the judge's language striking. She says "the president of the United States ... has undisputedly violated the Fourth [Amendment] in failing to procure judicial orders." But many judges -- some of them higher up than she is -- have disputed precisely this. So I don't know where she gets off saying that, and it makes me question her overall judgment.
"It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt."
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