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Supreme Court agrees to hear warrantless wiretapping case
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| Contributor | Craverguy |
| Last Edited | Craverguy May 21, 2012 02:15pm |
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| Category | News |
| Author | Agence France-Presse |
| News Date | Monday, May 21, 2012 05:55:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a US government challenge to a lawsuit against its electronic surveillance program, which allows authorities to eavesdrop on Americans’ overseas phone calls and emails.
The court agreed to hear the case Clapper vs. Amnesty International, the Barack Obama administration’s petition to the US top court in which it seeks to throw out a suit challenging US government monitoring of Americans’ international communications.
Obama administration lawyers appealed to the highest US court on behalf of James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, and maintains that because the surveillance targets foreigners, the US plaintiffs have no standing to sue.
But Amnesty International, along with other human rights groups, media organizations and attorneys, maintain that they have standing to challenge the wiretapping of overseas suspects because their own private communications could also be intercepted in the electronic monitoring.
The US appeals court in March 2011 allowed the suit challenging the constitutionality of the federal government’s electronic surveillance program targeting persons outside the United States.
The court ruled that the plaintiffs bringing the suit had a “reasonable fear” that their sensitive communications could be intercepted and had taken costly measures to avoid such intrusions.
Amnesty, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other plaintiffs maintain that the secret surveillance violates the US Constitution’s Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches. |
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