Judge Orders End to Bush’s Warrantless Wiretapping

A federal judge in Detroit ruled that the government’s eavesdropping program is illegal and unconstitutional, and ordered an immediate halt to it.

“It 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,” wrote district Judge Anna Diggs Taylor.

N.Y. Times:

A federal judge in Detroit ruled today that the Bush administration’s eavesdropping program is illegal and unconstitutional, and she ordered that it cease at once.

District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor found that President Bush exceeded his proper authority and that the eavesdropping without warrants violated the First and Fourth Amendment protections of free speech and privacy.

“It 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,” she wrote.In becoming the first federal judge to declare the eavesdropping program unconstitutional, Judge Taylor rejected the administration’s assertion that to defend itself against a lawsuit would force it to divulge information that should be kept secret in the name of national security.

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AP / Carlos Osorio

Ann Beeson, the American Civil Liberties Union’s associate legal director and the lead attorney for the plaintiffs, addresses the media in Detroit, Monday, June 12, 2006.