Wiretap Ruling Tilts Plaintiffs Way

Taking a swipe at the edifice of executive power built up over the course of the Bush Administration, federal Judge Vaughn Walker ruled late Wednesday that the government can’t invoke the state secrets privilege to block suits brought under the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act.

The ruling can be found here.

“In the case of FISA, Congress attempted not only to put a stop to warrantless wiretapping by the executive branch but also to establish checks and balances involving other branches of government in anticipation of efforts by future administrations to undertake warrantless surveillance in some other manner,” wrote Walker, the chief judge of California's Northern District.

Though Walker also dismissed the suit brought by the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, which alleged that the government had illegally monitored communications between the charity and its attorneys, he left their lawyers the opening to re-file the complaint with more evidence to show their standing under the section of FISA that allows citizens to bring civil suits against the government.

Jon Eisenberg, lead attorney for the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, said he thinks Walker’s decision will be studied at the “highest levels of government.”

“There are bits and pieces of public disclosures that have occurred over the past couple of years, unclassified information, that we can use to make our case,” he said, pointing to language in Walker’s decision that the plaintiffs must provide “enough specifics” based on unclassified documents.

“ ‘Enough specifics,’ “ Eisenberg said, “those are my marching orders…and tomorrow morning I start marching.”

—  Evan Hill