Political Games - Where the fuck’s the reset button?

Good article from the Center for Constitutional Rights on warrentless wiretapping. Though I feel much of it is purely trumpeting CCR victories, I feel it effectively shows that there is no legal prescident for wiretapping without a warrent. This article is titled: “1972 SHATTERING THE POLICY OF WARRANTLESS GOVERNMENT SURVEILLANCE.”

As a constant feature of its defense of political activists, CCR found itself challenging the use of illegal electronic surveillance in case after case. CCR first challenged the Nixon Administration’s policy of national security wiretapping in 1969 during the Chicago 8 case. At that time the government had announced that it did not need a court order to wiretap anyone it considered to be a threat to domestic security. Although the courts were not always responsive, and the government usually denied the existence of wiretaps, CCR continued to press the issue. That perseverance, coupled with the Nixon Administration’s flagrant violation of constitutional rights, resulted in one of the Center’s most significant and far-reaching legal victories in 1972. In a prosecution for conspiracy to destroy government property (United States v. Plamondun et al), the government finally admitted wiretapping without a warrant, and a courageous judge ordered that the defendants be given the records of the wiretaps. In an attempt to avoid disclosing the records, the government took the issue to the Supreme Court (United States v. United States District Court). In a landmark opinion, the Court unanimously declared that engaging in domestic electronic surveillance without a warrant is unconstitutional. This decision rejected the government’s attempt to gain legitimacy for its experiment in using the power of the Executive branch to invade people’s privacy and monitor their political activity. The government subsequently dropped a series of political prosecutions, including those against Leslie Bacon, Abbie Hoffman, and many of the May Day defendants, rather than reveal its illegal surveillance program.

~Justin

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