(Mint Press)— On Friday, June 1, the Obama administration will argue in a Federal appeals court that the government can break domestic spying laws in cases that involve matters of national security. Administration officials will seek to expand upon the PATRIOT Act and similar post 9/11 legislation that allows for extensive intelligence monitoring. While government surveillance privileges have expanded steadily over the past 10 years, rights groups have expressed opposition to the case, arguing that the unauthorized surveillance infringes upon citizen rights.
FISA expanded
Originally passed in 1978, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), created strict parameters under which the United States could monitor correspondence between citizens. However, after the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush covertly authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) to conduct warrantless wiretaps on individuals thought to be involved in terrorism.
Although the actions were later legitimized through the passage of the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act (USA PATRIOT Act), the expansive use of government wiretaps has been called into question following President Obama’s continuation of Bush-era surveillance policies.
Obama continues Bush-era policies
The illegal wiretaps by the Bush administration revealed in a 2005 New York Times article, led to a lawsuit by 40 citizen groups claiming that the government had listened to citizen calls without a warrant. The suit also named telecommunications company AT&T as complicit in the crimes.
The wiretaps were retroactively authorized by the PATRIOT Act, but still remain a contentious issue as President Obama seeks to expand the use of wiretapping and email surveillance this week.
Rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have lined up in opposition to the executive action. Expressing vociferous opposition to the Obama administration’s plan.
ACLU spokeswoman Michelle Richardson wrote a response to the government’s appeal for greater surveillance last week, saying:
“Remember the George W. Bush warrantless wiretapping program? The one that was so illegal that Congress had to pass a special law to ensure that no one was prosecuted for it or sued by their customers for facilitating it? And was found by independent reviewers to be pretty pointless anyway? And was then brilliantly codified and written into stone by Congress? And which almost immediately went off the rails, being used to collect all sorts of stuff it wasn’t supposed to? It’s back!”
Strong opposition yields few changes in government policy
Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a case deciding whether to halt a challenge against once illegal wiretap programs. The case is heralded as a victory by the Obama administration seeking to legitimize the 2008 passage of the renewed FISA law.
According to a report by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Department of Justice (DOJ) ordered 1,579 FISA orders in 2010, a 19 percent increase over the previous year. Not a single request was denied.
This, critics say, demonstrates that the DOJ can monitor citizen correspondence freely, and with impunity. Although the fight by citizens has been strong, the numerous lawsuits launched with the aid of rights groups have failed to create any substantive changes in government surveillance policies.
Shortly after its passage, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the ACLU, the Global Fund for Women along with numerous other rights groups launched a lawsuit declaring the 2008 FISA law unconstitutional. Chief among the concerns for rights groups involved in the suit is a provision which allows the government to wiretap any phone call as long as one of the parties on the line is located outside the United States.