NYCLU, ACLU Sue Over Unconstitutional Warrantless Wiretapping Law

The American Civil Liberties Union and its New York affiliate, the New York Civil Liberties Union, today filed a landmark lawsuit to stop the government from conducting surveillance under a new wiretapping law that gives the Bush administration virtually unchecked power to intercept Americans’ international e-mails and telephone calls. The case was filed on behalf of a broad coalition of attorneys and human rights, labor, legal, and media organizations whose ability to perform their work – which relies on confidential communications – will be greatly compromised by the new law. Most of the clients are in New York.

The FISA Amendments Act of 2008, passed by Congress on Wednesday and signed by President Bush today, not only legalizes the warrantless surveillance program that the president approved in late 2001, it gives the government new spying powers, including the power to conduct dragnet surveillance of Americans’ international communications.

“New York City is the very epitome of our national melting pot,” said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. “As a city that embraces immigrants and is even home to the United Nations – the most international organization the world has ever known – New Yorkers should be deeply concerned about the enormous impact this unconstitutional law will have on our friends and neighbors.”

In today’s legal challenge, the NYCLU and ACLU argue that the new spying law violates Americans’ rights to free speech and privacy under the First and Fourth Amendments to the Constitution. The new law permits the government to conduct intrusive surveillance without ever telling a court who it intends to spy on, what phone lines and email addresses it intends to monitor, where its surveillance targets are located, why it’s conducting the surveillance or whether it suspects any party to the communication of wrongdoing.

“A democratic system depends on the rule of law, and not even the president or Congress can authorize a law that violates core constitutional principles,” said Christopher Dunn, NYCLU associate legal director and the NYCLU’s lead counsel on the case. “The only thing compromised in this so-called ‘compromise’ law is the Constitution.”

Plaintiffs in today’s case are:

• The Nation and its contributing journalists Naomi Klein and Chris Hedges
• Amnesty International USA, Global Rights, Global Fund for Women, Human Rights Watch, PEN American Center, Service Employees International Union, Washington Office on Latin America, and the International Criminal Defence Attorneys Association
• Defense attorneys Dan Arshack, David Nevin, Scott McKay and Sylvia Royce

“As a journalist, my job requires communication with people in all parts of the world – from Iraq to Argentina. If the U.S. government is given unchecked surveillance power to monitor reporters’ confidential sources, my ability to do this work will be seriously compromised,” said Naomi Klein, an award-winning columnist and best-selling author who is a plaintiff in today’s lawsuit. “I cannot in good conscience accept that my conversations with people who live outside the U.S. will put them in harm’s way as a result of overzealous government spying. Privacy in my communications is not simply an expectation, it’s a right.”

The ACLU’s legal challenge, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, seeks a court order declaring that the new law is unconstitutional and ordering its immediate and permanent halt.

In a separate filing, the ACLU asked the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to ensure that any proceedings relating to the scope, meaning, or constitutionality of the new law be open to the public to the extent possible. The ACLU also asked the secret court to allow it to file a brief and participate in oral argument, to order the government to file a public version of its briefs addressing the law’s constitutionality, and to publish any judicial decision that is ultimately issued.

Attorneys in the lawsuit Amnesty v. McConnell are Dunn and Legal Director Arthur Eisenberg of the NYCLU and Jameel Jaffer, Melissa Goodman, and L. Danielle Tully of the ACLU National Security Project. Attorneys on the motion filed with the FISC are Jaffer, Goodman, Tully, and Arthur Spitzer of the ACLU of the National Capital Area.

More information, including today’s complaint, a video discussing the ACLU’s legal challenge, plaintiff statements in support of the lawsuit and the FISC motion, is available at: www.aclu.org/faa