ACLU Sues Over New Wiretap Law
Updated: The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit in federal court in New York today to try to prevent a new surveillance law approved by the Senate yesterday from being put into effect.
Signed today by President George Bush, the law approves “dragnet surveillance that has no connection to terrorism or criminal activity of any kind.” It is also blatantly unconstitutional because it includes no safeguards to protect individuals’ reasonable expectation of privacy in their international communications, Jameel Jaffer of the ACLU National Security Project said at an ACLU conference call with the media today that is still ongoing.
In an earlier ACLU press release he says that “the bill allows the warrantless and dragnet surveillance of Americans’ international telephone and email communications. It plainly violates the Fourth Amendment.”
The ACLU says it also filed a petition today in the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court asking that any proceedings it may conduct concerning the new law’s constitutionality be held publicly.
Updated at 2:30 p.m. to include information from ACLU teleconference.
