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Article: Warrantless eavesdropping violates the Constitution.(COLUMN)(Column)
- Article from:
- National Catholic Reporter
- Article date:
- January 20, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 National Catholic Reporter. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In 1978, as a member of Congress, I had to vote on the proposed Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) designed to create a secret court where the federal government could obtain a warrant to eavesdrop on any message deemed to be subversive. The measure that passed (without my vote) created the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which has now granted some 18,000 warrants and denied only five.
This secret court continued after 9/11 and saw applications double. There has been little knowledge about the court with its 11 judges, all appointed without a hearing by the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist. In December 2005, The New York Times revealed that ...