Unchecked Government Surveillance

Unchecked Government Surveillance


Over the last few years, the federal government has returned to the bad old days of unchecked spying on ordinary Americans, as part of a broad pattern of executive abuses that use "national security" as an excuse for encroaching on our privacy and free speech rights without adequate - or any - judicial oversight.
THE GUTTING OF FISA SAFEGUARDS
For five years, on presidential orders, the National Security Agency has been reading email and tapping phones without a warrant - actions explicitly forbidden by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978.

Despite this 30-year precedent, Congress and the president colluded in a last-minute Patriot-Act-style vote just before the 2007 summer recess. The resulting legislation lifts longstanding protections between government spying and Americans’ international communications. Congress’ "Police America Act” now gives the NSA a blank check to wiretap Americans without judicial oversight.

The ACLU urged members of Congress to resist the president's scare tactics, but caving to White House bullying and base political fears, the Democratic leadership agreed to these reckless changes.

CHALLENGING GOVERNMENT SPYING ABUSES
The ACLU continues to fight the Bush administration’s myriad expansions to domestic spying. We won the first round of our ACLU v. NSA lawsuit, in which a federal judge declared the program unconstitutional. The Sixth Circuit appeals court dismissed the case, while refusing to rule on the legality of the program, and the ACLU and its clients will continue to pursue this fight, all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.

Because of our lawsuits, federal courts have also ruled against Patriot Act provisions that enable abusive FBI "National Security Letter” demands for personal records. We have filed Freedom of Information Act requests on behalf of hundreds of organizations and individuals around the country to expose wrongful FBI and Pentagon spying.

CHALLENGING FBI ABUSE OF NATIONAL SECURITY LETTERS
The Patriot Act continues to threaten civil liberties as the FBI delivers tens of thousands of National Security Letters that demand personal records from businesses, and gags recipients from telling anyone about the letter.
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ACLU v. NSA
In the first federal challenge ever argued against the president's NSA spying program, the ACLU defeated the Bush administration in 2006, when Judge Anna Diggs Taylor ruled "[I]t was never the intent of the Framers to give the President such unfettered control, particularly where his actions blatantly disregard the parameters clearly enumerated in the Bill of Rights." The case was dismissed after the government’s appeal and the ACLU is preparing its next steps.
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DEMANDING THE TRUTH ABOUT GOVERNMENT SPYING The FBI and Pentagon are watching and keeping files on peaceful activists, and infiltrating groups like Greenpeace and PETA with informants. In January 2007, the president announced that he's allowed to open Americans' mail, and we also learned about undisclosed Pentagon and CIA demands for citizens' financial records.
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No American is beneath the law's protection. And no one - not even a U.S. president - is above the law's limits. Our fundamental system of checks and balances must be maintained if American democracy is to be preserved.