Judge orders halt to warrentless wiretaps?!!!

[thewayne]

http://news.yahoo.com/fc/world/espionage_and_intelligence

Judge nixes warrantless surveillance
AP - 1 hour, 31 minutes ago

DETROIT - A federal judge ruled Thursday that the government's warrantless wiretapping program is unconstitutional and ordered an immediate halt to it. U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit became the first judge to strike down the National Security Agency's program, which she says violates the rights to free speech and privacy as well as the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution.

So, I guess my question is in two parts: (a) how long before another court overrules/reinstates, and (b) will Bush et al just ignore it?

Comments

[silveradept]

SCOTUS, I'd say, is likely to overrule, unless enough of them are just flat-out pissed at the way Bush has been handling the judiciary. They might refuse to hear it, or uphold the ruling, which would be excellent.

I expect the administration, regardless of the outcome, to ignore any adverse ruling and continue on their belief in the unitary executive. To do so would give even the cowardliest of representatives a reason to impeach. They can hid behind the flagrant disregard for the judiciary in pressing the impeachment.

Here's hoping that SCOTUS sides with us this time.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

It's going to be interesting. I'll bet POTUS is royally PO'd at his appointees to SCOTUS because they haven't been kowtowing to the party line. I'd say there's a decent chance that SCOTUS will uphold it because the provisions for making the wiretap legit are so easy, there's really no excuse not to do it.

Unfortunately, I also agree with your second statement. I think the Executive Branch will simply ignore it and continue in Business As Usual mode.

Did you hear that the Executive Branch is trying to introduce legislation that will make it impossible for them to be prosecuted for war crimes? These aren't unintelligent people. Well, at least some of them are not unintelligent.

[silveradept]

Yeah, I saw an article on the retroactive war crimes thing. Somebody in that Administration is both intelligent and ruthless. I'm still trying to figure out who it is so that we can stick the blame on them and make them work for good and not evil.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

Rove & Cheney. I don't think you have to look much further than those two. And Rove is not an elected official.

Ruthless is an excellent word for this.

[silveradept]

It has to be, with the way that they've systematically gone about their business and not provoked a major reaction. Ruthless,e fficient, and effective, with a great figurehead in power and enough people turning a blind eye in the right places.

If we impeach Bush, we get Cheney. We can impeach Cheney... and all the way down the line if we have to.