Wanted: Constitution Returned

You may recall the name of Judge Anna Diggs Taylor of the United States District Court in Detroit who warned last Aug. 17, in a case brought by the A.C.L.U. “There are no hereditary kings in America.”

She was ruling in a suit brought against the National Security Agency by the American Civil Liberties Union for monitoring the phone calls and e-mail messages of Americans for more than four years without first obtaining warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

The president, she wrote, had “undisputedly violated” not only the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution, but also statutory law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

The Administration, which reversed itself in January and said it would, in future, seek warrants before evesdropping, appealed Judge Taylor’s ruling. Oral arguments begin today in the Federal Appeals court in Cincinnati.

One of the plaintiffs, James Bamford, writes about the issues and the case in the NY Times today.