Warrantless wiretaps? Unconstitutional? Who knew!

From Think Progress:

Fox News reports a federal district court in Detroit has ruled that the Bush administration’s NSA warrantless wiretapping program is unconstitutional and ordered an immediate halt to it.

A separate federal district court in San Francisco had previously rejected the administration’s argument that the courts could not hear the case due to a “state secrets” privilege. The lawsuits have alleged that NSA program violated the First and Fourth Amendments, as well as a number of federal statutes, including the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The defendants included AT&T and the federal government.

. . .

Don't even get me started on how easy it is to get a FISA warrant. Here's the judge's opinion (.pdf), which states: "In this case, the President has acted, undisputedly, as FISA forbids. FISA is the expressed statutory policy of our Congress. The presidential power, therefore, was exercised at its lowest ebb and cannot be sustained." (p. 36) And here's a .pdf of her injunction.

Some good news at last. Hopefully this won't be short-lived, and the Sixth Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court won't say otherwise.

Note to Republicans in power: just because you can't control the judiciary, it doesn't mean that the judiciary is "out of control."

Note to the NSA: if you're monitoring me, I'm just kidding!!

Update: Some more beautiful words from Judge Anna Diggs Taylor's opinion: "We must first note that the Office of the Chief Executive has itself been created, with its powers, by the Constitution. There are no hereditary Kings in America and no powers not created by the Constitution. So all 'inherent powers' must derive from that Constitution." (p. 40). Or, as Tom Paine put it: "In America, the law is king." Damn, Judge Taylor is good. Or the clerk that wrote the opinion is good!