Pat Dollard | Young Americans

We-heh-hellll…

This from Rusty over at The Jawa Report:

The Supreme Court has effectively ruled that wiretapping suspected terrorists without a warrant is legal. Today they turned down an opportunity to overrule a lower court case which dismissed the ACLU’s lawsuit claiming that the so-called “domestic wiretapping” program–which really only monitored communications where at least one of those involved was in a foreign country–was illegal.

The lower court ruled against the ACLU because not one of their clients could show they had been harmed by the program. In fact, as far as I know not a single person, domestically, has been arrested or harassed as the result of the program. Since no one has been harmed by the program, there was no basis for the lawsuit. No harm, no foul.

In fact, none of the clients could show they had even been monitored.

This is not to say that the program hasn’t harmed people abroad. I hope it has. In fact, I’m betting that more than one or two terrorists now have their 72 virgins on account of an intercepted phone call or e-mail.

But the best part about today’s ruling? Buried in this Reuters article is this:

The administration abandoned the program about a year ago, putting it under the surveillance court that Congress created more than 30 years ago.

The high court’s action means that Bush will be able to disregard whatever legislative eavesdropping restrictions Congress adopts as there will be no meaningful judicial review, the ACLU attorneys said.

If the ACLU is correct, it means that the lapsing of the FISA law is no big deal. In fact, law enforcement may now have more ability to monitor terrorist activities because of the compromises included in the new law which give FISA courts much more power to oversee law-enforcement monitoring activities.

Maybe we don’t need this new FISA law after all. I wonder if the White House had been tipped as the to way the Court would rule, thus explaining why President Bush hasn’t called Congress back into session to push through the new legislation? I’m guessing, though, that today’s ruling will prompt Pelosi and company to act.