Important Allies Join the Fight Against NSA Internet Backbone Surveillance
1–10 of 23 posts
Re: Important Allies Join the Fight Against NSA Internet Backbone Surveillance
#2Hooray for democracy! A self correcting system indeed. Even the NSA is capable of meaningful change.
Re: Important Allies Join the Fight Against NSA Internet Backbone Surveillance
#3"A federal court in San Francisco sided with the U.S. Department of Justice, ruling that the plaintiffs could not win a significant portion of the case—a Fourth Amendment challenge to the NSA’s tapping of the Internet backbone—without disclosure of classified information that would harm national security. In other words, Judge Jeffrey White found that “state secrets” can trump the judicial process and held that EFF’s clients could not prove they have standing."
From the linked ruling in the article. This type of ruling is mind boggling - what a giant cop out that the government can just say "oh sorry national security!" to end court cases.
Re: Important Allies Join the Fight Against NSA Internet Backbone Surveillance
#4There's a Reddit AMA about this happening right now: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2zpkxx/we_are_jameel_...
Re: Important Allies Join the Fight Against NSA Internet Backbone Surveillance
#5> "It also said that the additional information needed was just too secret to serve as a basis for a court decision about whether the constitution has been violated. As a result, the District Court found that a “full and fair adjudication” of our clients' Fourth Amendment claims would require consideration of evidence covered by the state secrets privilege and would risk harm to national security."
This is pathetic. This country is seriously fucked.
Re: Important Allies Join the Fight Against NSA Internet Backbone Surveillance
#6"A federal court in San Francisco sided with the U.S. Department of Justice, ruling that the plaintiffs could not win a significant portion of the case—a Fourth Amendment challenge to the NSA’s tapping of the Internet backbone—without disclosure of classified information that would harm national security. In other words, Judge Jeffrey White found that “state secrets” can trump the judicial process and held that EFF’s…
It's unbelievable to me, too. It basically means the government can both violate the Constitution and absolve itself for the reason of "national security". To think how that would have gone over in the 18th century!
Re: Important Allies Join the Fight Against NSA Internet Backbone Surveillance
#7What happened to all of the accounts cheering EFF donations on? Someone steal your sweet-roll?
As it turns out, skirmishes with the US Government using US Law aren't very successful. You can pretend you gain awareness that the laws are completely bent out of shape, but you must also become aware of the motivation and morale that was lost. Whatever we've won being aware that the law will not help in this case, we've lost in self-censorship and awareness that to truly stand against this system can very likely hurt your professional and personal well-being.
Very little will be won by skirmishing with the redcoats in the open fields. This will be realized soon enough; why else would we have so many years of media invested in developing such a deep emotional connection with the word 'terrorism', which can now so broadly be applied. As always, the masses are a day late and a dollar short.
Re: Important Allies Join the Fight Against NSA Internet Backbone Surveillance
#8"A federal court in San Francisco sided with the U.S. Department of Justice, ruling that the plaintiffs could not win a significant portion of the case—a Fourth Amendment challenge to the NSA’s tapping of the Internet backbone—without disclosure of classified information that would harm national security. In other words, Judge Jeffrey White found that “state secrets” can trump the judicial process and held that EFF’s…
It's unbelievable to me, too. It basically means the government can both violate the Constitution and absolve itself for the reason of "national security". To think how that would have gone over in the 18th century!
Of course it can. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/president-lincoln...
Re: Important Allies Join the Fight Against NSA Internet Backbone Surveillance
#9"A federal court in San Francisco sided with the U.S. Department of Justice, ruling that the plaintiffs could not win a significant portion of the case—a Fourth Amendment challenge to the NSA’s tapping of the Internet backbone—without disclosure of classified information that would harm national security. In other words, Judge Jeffrey White found that “state secrets” can trump the judicial process and held that EFF’s…
It's unbelievable to me, too. It basically means the government can both violate the Constitution and absolve itself for the reason of "national security". To think how that would have gone over in the 18th century!
Frustrating as well because supporters of the programs like to bring up how they've been challenged in court before so they're perfectly fine and legal. Well, not exactly...
Re: Important Allies Join the Fight Against NSA Internet Backbone Surveillance
#10There's a Reddit AMA about this happening right now: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2zpkxx/we_are_jameel_...
HN submission: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9240326