PETE YOST
Liberties Group Urges Court Action
Sat Sep 21 17:58:37 2002
208.152.73.193

September 20, 2002

Liberties Group Urges Court Action

By PETE YOST
ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON- A secret appeals court should turn
aside the Bush administration's effort to expand
surveillance powers in the war on terror, civil liberties
groups said Friday.

In court papers, the groups said expansion would
jeopardize the rights to privacy and to engage in lawful
public dissent and the warrant, notice and judicial review
rights guaranteed by the Constitution's Fourth and Fifth
Amendments.

"The government should not be permitted to turn the
quest for foreign intelligence into a `pro forma
justification for any degree of intrusion into zones of
privacy,'" the court papers, stated quoting a 1973 case
on Fourth Amendment rights.

The U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which
has not publicly disclosed any of its rulings in nearly two
decades, rejected in May some of the Justice
Department guidelines for FBI terrorism searches and
wiretaps as "not reasonably designed" to safeguard the
privacy of Americans.

The Justice Department quickly amended its guidelines
and won the court's approval. Meanwhile, Bush
administration officials are appealing the restrictions,
arguing that the limits inhibit the sharing of information
between terrorism investigators and criminal detectives.

In their court filing, the civil liberties groups said they do
not dispute that the government should be able to
prosecute spies and terrorists.

But "the government simply misses the constitutional
point" when it argues that the need to prosecute spies
and terrorists justifies using the surveillance even for
investigations that are purely criminal, the groups said in
their court papers.

The Justice Department says the special court has
incorrectly interpreted the Patriot Act, and the effect of
that incorrect interpretation is to limit the kind of
coordination that the Justice Department regards as
vital.

The American Civil Liberties Union's technology and
liberty program filed the brief, together with the Center
for Democracy and Technology, the Center for National
Security Studies, the Electronic Privacy Information
Center, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Open
Society Institute.

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On the Net: Justice Department brief before the appeals
court:
http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/doj/fisa/082102appeal.html
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U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court


Inside America's Secret Court - Patrick S. Poole - pspoole@hiwaay.net
In a highly restricted room inside the Department of Justice Building in
Washington D.C. resides a federal court that meets in complete secrecy.
Even though the rulings this secret court issues may result in criminal
charges, convictions and prison...
http://fly.hiwaay.net/~pspoole/fiscshort.html

• Re: Liberties group urges court action — Cheryl Seal, Sat Sep 21 20:53