Is Warrantless Wiretapping Warranted?

Congress and the White House are engaged in an ongoing struggle over the Executive Branch’s authority to perform surveillance without a search warrant. At stake: the Fourth Amendment and separation of powers on the one hand, and national security on the other.

Federal judges have already ruled warrantless wiretapping unconstitutional, though the case has yet to reach the Supreme Court, which has thus far refused to hear lawsuits challenging the wiretaps.

Congress allowed Bush’s wiretap program to go forward on a temporary basis last year, but that loophole has now lapsed, leading to the current showdown.

There is precedent for suspending Constitutional rights during time of war: President Roosevelt interned tens of thousands of Japanese Americans during World War II, and President Lincoln suspended habeas corpus during the Civil War, for example. President Bush has suspended habeas corpus and imprisoned American citizens indefinitely without benefit of counsel–which leads to a crucial question:

Is the War on Terror analogous to WWII or the Civil War?

Of course not. Compare the death tolls: 7431 and counting in the War on Terror, over 400,000 in WWII, over 600,000 in the Civil War. Compare the stakes: the possibility of occasional attacks on American targets vs. world domination by totalitarian dictators vs. the sundering of the American nation. Compare the enemy: a loosely organized band of radical jihadists vs. Axis Powers controlling huge swaths of Europe, Asia, North Africa and the Pacific vs. a determined Confederacy led by Robert E. Lee, a military genius rivaling Napoleon and Alexander.

The president has used the 9/11 attacks to take power from Congress, the courts, and the people. He already has an adequately cooperative Congress, a sympathetic Supreme Court, and the tools–including FISA–to protect us without weakening the Constitution or our civil liberties.

The Bill of Rights couldn’t be more clear:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

The FISA Court already gives the president the authority to delay getting a warrant for three days and to hold court in secret. He’s already suspended habeas corpus, circumvented the Geneva Conventions, signed hundreds of signing statements undermining the separation of powers, and invaded Iraq without a declaration of war.

Are warrantless wiretaps warranted?

Hardly.

Newsprism.com