Chris
12-29-2013, 06:21 PM
Alarmed or comforted?
Is the NSA's Spying Constitutional? It Depends Which Judge You Ask (http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/12/is-the-nsas-spying-constitutional-it-depends-which-judge-you-ask/282672/)
...Last week, a federal trial judge in Washington boldly declared the NSA's bulk metadata collection program to be "likely unconstitutional," as applied to individual citizens whose phone records were collected and stored. Here is the link to that ruling, authored by U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, a nominee of President George W. Bush. It was a Republican appointee, the record will reflect, who first challenged the legality of the sprawling surveillance operation.
On Friday, a federal trial judge in New York boldly declared that very same surveillance program is constitutional as applied to the ACLU, the phone records of which also were collected and stored. Here is the link to the ruling, authored by U.S. District Judge William Pauley, a nominee of President Bill Clinton. It was a Democratic appointee, the record will also reflect, who first endorsed the legality of this once-secret, mass data collection program
...Taken together, these two manifestos represent the best arguments either side so far has been able to muster. If you trust the government, Judge Pauley's the guy for you. If you don't, Judge Leon makes more sense.
That two judges would hold such contrasting worldviews is either alarming (if you believe the law can be evenly applied) or comforting (if you believe that each individual judge ought to be free to express his conscience). In any event, taken together, the two opinions say a lot about nature of legal analysis. The judge who gets overturned on appeal here won't necessarily be wrong—he'll just not have the votes on appeal supporting his particular view of the law and the facts. In the end, you see, there is no central truth in these great constitutional cases that rest at the core of government authority; there is just the exercise of judicial power....
Is the NSA's Spying Constitutional? It Depends Which Judge You Ask (http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/12/is-the-nsas-spying-constitutional-it-depends-which-judge-you-ask/282672/)
...Last week, a federal trial judge in Washington boldly declared the NSA's bulk metadata collection program to be "likely unconstitutional," as applied to individual citizens whose phone records were collected and stored. Here is the link to that ruling, authored by U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, a nominee of President George W. Bush. It was a Republican appointee, the record will reflect, who first challenged the legality of the sprawling surveillance operation.
On Friday, a federal trial judge in New York boldly declared that very same surveillance program is constitutional as applied to the ACLU, the phone records of which also were collected and stored. Here is the link to the ruling, authored by U.S. District Judge William Pauley, a nominee of President Bill Clinton. It was a Democratic appointee, the record will also reflect, who first endorsed the legality of this once-secret, mass data collection program
...Taken together, these two manifestos represent the best arguments either side so far has been able to muster. If you trust the government, Judge Pauley's the guy for you. If you don't, Judge Leon makes more sense.
That two judges would hold such contrasting worldviews is either alarming (if you believe the law can be evenly applied) or comforting (if you believe that each individual judge ought to be free to express his conscience). In any event, taken together, the two opinions say a lot about nature of legal analysis. The judge who gets overturned on appeal here won't necessarily be wrong—he'll just not have the votes on appeal supporting his particular view of the law and the facts. In the end, you see, there is no central truth in these great constitutional cases that rest at the core of government authority; there is just the exercise of judicial power....