Thursday, July 10, 2008

Wiretaps

Oh, if only the telecom lobby were as ineffective as these Chinese Segway-machine-gun paramilitary guys look. Unfortunately, that is not the case; Congress has granted telecoms that participated in blatantly and admittedly illegal wiretapping retroactive immunity. The point of such a law is to let private companies know that if the President asks them to do something that any doofus can tell is illegal they can just do it without worrying. Of course the ACLU and the EFF will challenge the constitutionality of the FISA amendment law in court, but can you honestly see SCOTUS countermanding Congress and the President on something that could be characterized as a national security issue?

2 comments:

Slackey McSlackerson said...

I do think that SCOTUS would challenge Congress and the Executive on a matter of national security. Why? Because the SCOTUS is on a spree of asserting authority... as in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qu4EQqOBYwU

Jason McKim said...

Mr. McSlackerson, I believe you might be conflating "authoritah" with "authority," which is like conflating "truth" with "truthiness." "Authoritah" is just temporarily hitting the Executive on the shins.