John Dean Says ACLU NSA Case Should Proceed

Given the failures of a Republican-controlled Congress to hold George W. Bush accountable on the NSA domestic spying issue, the courts have an obligation to uphold the law of the land. John Dean of FindLaw talks about the ACLU case which simply asks the courts to insist that Bush obey laws already on the books and in the US Constitution:

The American Civil Liberties Union is the lead plaintiff in a federal lawsuit requesting that the National Security Agency (NSA) be enjoined from its ongoing violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) via its program of telephone surveillance of Americans. Joining the ACLU as plaintiffs are a number of attorneys, scholars, journalists and others who have been adversely affected by the program. The plaintiffs argue that the NSA program violates not only FISA, but also the Constitution's First and Fourth Amendments.


The U.S. Government, through its Department of Justice attorneys, has been desperately trying to get this case - currently pending in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan -- dismissed. To this end, DOJ attorneys have invoked the "state secrets privilege" - claiming, in essence, that the government cannot explain its actions because they involve national security.

(snip)

Indeed, if she so chooses, Judge Anna Diggs Taylor can do for America what the GOP- controlled Congress, and Republican-beholden federal judges, have thus far refused to do: She can require the Administration to comply with the law -- and in the process, she can actually examine the validity of the government's claim of "state secrets," rather than merely buying into assertions that national security is involved. Since such claims have been persistently abused by prior presidents, this kind of examination is long overdue.

It can't be emphasized enough that the issues here are bigger than Republicans or Democrats. Without transparency, we lose our democracy. John Dean belongs to a growing chorus of Americans who are neither moderate nor liberal but who believe the Bush Administration is seriously abusing and exceeding the legal authority of the executive branch.