ACLU vs. FISA: unconstitutional eavesdropping.

• Author: Steigerwald, Lucy
• Position: Citings - American Civil Liberties Union, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act - Brief article

As A SENATOR running for president, Barack Obama condemned the Bush administration's warrantless monitoring of Americans' international communications yet voted to retroactively legalize it by amending the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). According to a lawsuit that a federal appeals court recently allowed to proceed, those amendments violate the Constitution.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) argues that FISA Amendment Act of 2008 violates the Fourth Amendment's guarantee against unreasonable searches because it allows the government to conduct surveillance with almost no judicial oversight, without naming the target, and without claiming a direct link to terrorism. The ACLU also...