Monday, August 21, 2006
Dearborn Heights, MI – Last week's ruling declaring the secret, warrantless surveillance by the National Security Agency (NSA) to be both illegal and a violation of the First and Fourth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution was hailed as "a victory for democracy" by the Democratic candidate for Michigan's 11th Congressional District seat.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit denounced the NSA program, begun after 9/11 with the purpose of monitoring international telephone conversations involving U.S. citizens (including journalists and members of the clergy), as a violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) and as an unconstitutional breach of the rights to free speech and freedom from illegal searches and seizures
guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.
"Judge Taylor's ruling represents a victory for democracy in America," said Tony Trupiano, the Democratic candidate challenging incumbent U.S. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter in the 11th District. "Congress passed the FISA act specifically to rein in this type of unchecked executive power, and I am disappointed that Congressman McCotter has never stood up for the people he represents, or for the authority of Congress to check the President in such matters."
The NSA program, called the "terrorist surveillance program" by the White House, ignores the FISA statute that requires federal agencies to get a warrant when conducting a wiretap or any other form of electronic monitoring of U.S. citizens. Taylor's ruling was immediately appealed by the Bush Administration and the matter will likely end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.
"This whole issue would go away if
the Administration had simply followed the FISA law," Trupiano said. "The law set up a court that meets in secret and is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, that does nothing but approve warrants for wiretaps and electronic monitoring."
The USA PATRIOT Act amended FISA, Trupiano noted, giving federal agencies 72 hours to begin surveillance without a warrant, when the need to act is considered urgent – so long as a warrant is eventually submitted.
"They should just get the warrants," Trupiano said. "But they didn't, and for years this Administration has fought every attempt to be held accountable for their actions."
"There are three separate and co-equal branches of government," Trupiano said. "All three want to fight and win the war on terror. The President should not act like a monarch, and members of Congress like Thaddeus McCotter shouldn't let him – which is one reason Thaddeus needs to be sent home on Tuesday, November 7th."
