2nd Circuit Court Of Appeals: NSA Spying Program Illegal

Secular Talk

Sources state that on Thursday, a panel of three federal judges from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that the NSA’s bulk-phone records spying program was illegal.

Reuters states:  “Ruling on a program revealed by former government security contractor Edward Snowden, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said the Patriot Act did not authorize the National Security Agency to collect Americans’ calling records in bulk.

“Circuit Judge Gerard Lynch wrote for a three-judge panel that Section 215, which addresses the FBI’s ability to gather business records, could not be interpreted to have permitted the NSA to collect a “staggering” amount of phone records, contrary to claims by the Bush and Obama administrations.”

Also, According to the National Journal, more court decisions are on the way:

“Two other appeals courts have in recent months heard arguments considering the legality of the NSA bulk telephone program, but neither has issued a ruling yet. Any split among the courts likely will prompt a Supreme Court review.

Boing Boing and The Electronic Frontier Foundation state:

1. When Congress gave the NSA the power to gather “relevant” information and do so for an “investigation,” they didn’t mean “gather everything and store it forever in case it becomes relevant later.”

2. Having your data collected by the NSA gives you the right to sue them — even if the NSA never looked at that data.

3. Metadata is sensitive information, and the NSA can’t argue that its mass-spying is harmless because it’s collecting metadata instead of data (the fact that you called a suicide hotline is every bit as compromising as what you said while you were talking to them).

4. The judges have “concerns” about the constitutionality of mass spying (though the didn’t go so far as to say that it is unconstitutional, partly because the ACLU had already won on the statutory language alone).

5. One judge added: The government shouldn’t have secret laws. The government argued that its interpretation of surveillance laws was a secret, and the court spanked them for it, saying that a law that’s “shrouded in secrecy” lacked legitimacy.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/07/us-usa-security-nsa-idUSKBN0NS1IN20150507

http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/federal-appeals-court-says-nsa-phone-records-program-illegal-n355271

http://www.nationaljournal.com/tech/federal-appeals-court-rules-nsa-spying-illegal-20150507

http://boingboing.net/2015/05/10/what-did-the-courts-just-do-th.html

Lindsey Graham: I Would Deploy The Military Against Congress As President

According to Vox.com, Republican senator and presidential hopeful Lindsey Graham went to the “politics and pies” forum in Concord, New Hampshire recently, where he announced that if he is elected president in 2016, his first act would be to deploy the military in Washington to force Congress to reverse cuts to the defense and intelligence budgets.

That may go over well with the “folksy” crowd, but according to Vox.com, it doesn’t sound legal.

Here are Graham’s words:

“And here’s the first thing I would do if I were president of the United States. I wouldn’t let Congress leave town until we fix this. I would literally use the military to keep them in if I had to. We’re not leaving town until we restore these defense cuts. We are not leaving town until we restore the intel cuts.”

Graham would use the military to force members of Congress to not just vote on the bill, but to pass it – in other words, until the defense and intel cuts are restored.

Graham didn’t say “until I get an up-or-down vote on restoring defense cuts.” He said “until we restore these defense cuts.”

So Graham is proposing that his first act as president would be to use the military to force the legislative branch to pass his agenda.

If taken literally, Graham is basically announcing his plan to stage some sort of coup.  He is saying that if he gains control of the executive branch, he will use his authority as commander in chief to overcome the separation of powers and force the legislative branch to do his bidding, instead of allowing it to act as an independent branch of the government.

Vox.com states that political scientists often refer to that type of action as a “self-coup,” a situation in which a legitimate leader uses the military or other armed force to unlawfully sieze more power than is permitted under the constitution of the country in question.

Usually that’s a seizure of power and a shutdown of the legislature, according to Vox.com.  What Graham is proposing is a milder version.

Vox states that he may have been joking, but the recording sounded serious.

If he was being serious, the proposal is different than what is actually legal — such as, say, the Senate leadership using the Capitol police or sergeant-at-arms to ensure that the Senate has a quorum.

That happened in 1988, when Democratic leadership had the Capitol police carry Republican Senator from Oregon Bob Packwood into the Senate chamber to ensure a quorum.

Harry Reid threatened to use similar methods more recently when he was Senate majority leader.

But what the Senate did in 1988 was compel senators’ presence, not compel them to vote a certain way.  Graham is talking about forcing legislators to vote a certain way.

What happened to Packwood was permitted by the Senate rules, which say that “a majority of the Senators present may direct the Sergeant at Arms to request, and, when necessary, to compel the attendance of the absent Senators” to reach a quorum.

And it was the Senate policing itself, and thus did not violate the separation of powers.

What Lindsey Graham is proposing is to physically force members of Congress to vote how he commands.

His plan violates constitutional separation of powers in just about the most extreme way imaginable, according to Vox.com.  He would be forcing the executive branch’s will on the legislature.

“And it is a pretty safe bet that Senate rules do not grant the president authority to have the 101st Airborne Division occupy the Capitol until Congress votes the way he wants,” states Vox.com.

Graham’s proposal is so astonishing that it’s pretty much impossible to believe that’s what he really meant. It is hard to believe he is a mainstream politician and an attorney who once served as an Air Force JAG.

You can listen to the recording here:

http://benswann.com/graham-military-force-congress/

More:

http://www.concordmonitor.com/home/16012590-95/at-first-politics-and-pies-south-carolina-sen-graham-stresses-national-security

Protesters / McCain Fight Ancient Battle

“Get out of here you low-life scum,” McCain snapped at one point.

According to the AP, Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) was left fuming mad after hecklers disrupted a congressional hearing on Thursday.

According to ABC News, the protesters, who were affiliated with the liberal activist group Code Pink, swarmed behind former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger as he arrived for a Senate hearing on national security.

“Arrest Henry Kissinger for war crimes!” the protesters chanted, apparently upset at the Nixon administration official for his role in the Vietnam War.

McCain, a Vietnam veteran, had no understanding for their criticism.

“You’re going to have to shut up, or I’m going to have you arrested,” he told them.

McCain also apologized to Kissinger for allowing their “despicable” interruption to occur.

More here