Rational Nation USA
Purveyor of Truth
William H. Pauley III, a federal judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York has ruled "... that protections under the Fourth Amendment do not apply to records held by third parties, like phone companies." This of course means that all phone records essentially become the property of the federal government and can be used for any reason whatsoever Big Brother deems appropriate. It certainly seems America is rapidly approaching the government described in George Orwell's epic novel 1984. Big brother will not be content until it can listen to and see everything its citizens are doing.
Nominated by President William Jefferson Clinton in 1998 to the federal bench Judge Pauley's decision is somewhat befuddling. Especially in light of Judge Richard J. Leon of Federal District Court for the District of Columbia ruling that "... the program most likely violated the Fourth Amendment. As part of that ruling, Judge Leon ordered the government to stop collecting data on two plaintiffs who brought the case against the government." Judge Leon, nominated by President George W. Bush in 2002 clearly understands the dangers to Americans right to privacy and the concept of unlawful search and seizure. Essentially data mining of private phone records by the NSA of United States Citizens is an unconstitutional act and Jfge Leon has it exactly right.
What befuddles me even more is that the current "President of the People", Barrack Hussein Obama, apparently is solidly behind the decision handed down by Judge Pauley. An Obama Justice Department spokesman had this to say following Judge Pauley's decision, " “We are pleased the court found the N.S.A.'s bulk telephony metadata collection program to be lawful.” The spokesman refused further comment. Welcome Big Bother Surveillance State of America.
The ACLU, of whom former Republican President George Hebert Walker Bush as a proud card carrying member of, intends to appeal the decision. In a statement following the decision Jameel Jaffer, the A.C.L.U. deputy legal director made the following statement, "... We are extremely disappointed with this decision, which misinterprets the relevant statutes, understates the privacy implications of the government’s surveillance and misapplies a narrow and outdated precedent to read away core constitutional protections.” This is most certainly one issue that ALL Americans should be highly concerned with.
For the full story please see The New York Times article below the fold.
Via: Memeorandum
