FISA Court Rules Wiretapping Program Legal
Bipin Gautam
Intelligence Court Rules Wiretapping Program Legal
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/16/washington/16fisa.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print
WASHINGTON — A federal intelligence court, in a rare public opinion,
is expected to issue a major ruling validating the power of the
president and Congress to wiretap international phone calls and
intercept e-mail messages without a court order, even when Americans'
private communications may be involved.
The court decision is expected to be disclosed as early as Thursday in
an unclassified, redacted form. It was made in December by the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, which has issued only two
prior rulings in its 30-year history.
The decision marks the first time since the disclosure of the National
Security Agency's warrantless eavesdropping program three years ago
that an appellate court has addressed the constitutionality of the
federal government's wiretapping powers. In validating the
government's wide authority to collect foreign intelligence, it may
offer legal credence to the Bush administration's repeated assertions
that the president has constitutional authority to act without
specific court approval in ordering national security eavesdropping.
The appeals court is expected to uphold a secret ruling issued last
year by the intelligence court that it oversees, known as the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance, or FISA, court. In that initial opinion,
the secret court found that Congress had acted within its authority in
August of 2007 when it passed a hotly debated law known as the Protect
America Act, which gave the executive branch broad power to eavesdrop
on international communications, according to someone familiar with
the ruling.