Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Congress and Bush Ignore the Constitution

There wasn't much press about this. I heard about it at the last minute.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080709/ap_on_go_co/terrorist_surveillance

Retroactive immunity was given to telecom companies today, ignoring the fourth amendment of the constitution. Congress and the President all take an oath to uphold the constitution. The fact that they are passing laws that blatantly go against it makes me sick!


Here is the 4th Amendment:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.


So, to spy on someone, you need a warrant and probable cause, and you need to describe the person or place you want to search.

The old FISA law gave the FBI a lot of leeway and made those warrants really easy to get. This new law goes way beyond that.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/10/washington/10fisa.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Obama voted for this mess! What happened to the plan to filibuster? http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/09/blogtalk-obamas-fisa-vote/

McCain was out of town and didn't bother to vote.


See the rest of the Bill of Rights here: http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.billofrights.html

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