| FEINGOLD CALLS ON ADMINISTRATION TO RECONSIDER ILLEGAL WIRETAPPING PROGRAM FOLLOWING SUPREME COURT’S HAMDAN DECISION
Supreme Court’s Ruling Directly Undercuts the Administration’s Arguments In Defense of Illegal NSA Wiretapping Program July 17, 2006 Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Russ Feingold is urging President Bush and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to reconsider their position that the NSA domestic surveillance program is legal following the Supreme Court’s rejection of the Administration’s expansive theory of executive power in the Hamdan case. In a letter to the President and the Attorney General, Feingold urged them to reconsider the position no later than the wiretapping program’s next periodic review. According to the Department of Justice, the warrantless wiretapping program is reviewed approximately every 45 days meaning that some time in August, the Administration will evaluate whether the NSA program should be renewed. Earlier this year, Feingold introduced a resolution to censure the President for authorizing the warrantless surveillance of Americans without the court approval required by law. “The Hamdan decision is a direct repudiation of the Administration’s theory that the President basically has unlimited power under Article II of the Constitution,” Feingold said. “It is time for this Administration, which too often has ignored our constitutional system of checks and balances, to recognize that the NSA wiretapping program has no legal basis.” On June 29, 2006, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the President could not try detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, using military commissions that Congress had not authorized. In its decision, the Court held that the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) passed by Congress in September 2001 did not authorize military commissions. The Administration had previously used the AUMF as a basis for the wiretapping program as well. “Now that the Supreme Court has rejected in Hamdan the weak justifications upon which the Department of Justice has relied in approving the program in the past, I urge you to finally recognize what has been clear to most observers for some time -- that the NSA warrantless wiretapping program has no legal basis,” Feingold wrote in the letter. A copy of the letter is attached. Read Senator Feingold's Fact Sheet on The President’s Agreement with Chairman Specter on NSA Wiretapping.
http://www.feingold.senate.gov/~feingold/statements/06/07/20060717htm.htm | 
No comments:
Post a Comment