The Wiretap Vindication

[I know you're tired of hearing this with the blanket coverage in the MSM, but...]

Ever since the Bush Administration's warrantless wiretapping program was exposed in 2005, critics have denounced it as illegal and unconstitutional. Those allegations rested solely on the fact that the Administration did not first get permission from the special court created by the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Well, as it happens, the same FISA court would beg to differ.

... the Constitution bans only "unreasonable" search and seizure, not all searches and seizures, and the Fourth Amendment allows for exceptions such as those under a President's Article II war powers. The courts have been explicit on this point ... "the Executive need not always obtain a warrant for foreign intelligence surveillance." ... the President has "inherent authority to conduct warrantless searches to obtain foreign intelligence information" ... "FISA could not encroach on the President's constitutional power."

For all the political hysteria and media dishonesty about George W. Bush "spying on Americans," this fight was never about anything other than staging an ideological raid on the President's war powers. Barack Obama ought to be thankful that the FISA court has knocked the bottom out of this gambit, just in time for him to take office.

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