Justice Department wants suit found moot

The Facts \nThe Washington Post has reported that the Justice Department filed papers wanting a judgment in favor of the ACLU that would prevent the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program declared moot because of lack of live significance. Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales announced that NSA surveillance will now be under the supervision of an 11-member secret court as part of the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act. Is this a bureaucratic runaround or legitimate reform?\nCourt must uphold constitutional strength\nBy Grace Low\nThe pertinence of this case lies not in whether the government has made some superficial changes in the channels by which warrantless surveillance occurs, but a matter of setting proper constitutional precedent.\nThe higher appellate court must grant hearing to this case, because, were the original holding sustained, it would set a precedent of constraint, protecting the American people of the future from the same abuses we have endured under the Bush administration.\nThe point is that warrantless surveillance has all the earmarks of illegal invasion of privacy, and the appellate courts must recognize the importance of preserving the Constitution's teeth in the matter of governmental constraint. The bureau in charge doesn't matter; wiretapping is an unconstitutional abuse of power.\nHopefully, the courts will not be blinded by bureaucracy and will carry on with this case.\nGovernment adjustments legitimate to stop suit\nBy Edward Delp\nThe Justice Department is correct in saying that the case no longer has live significance. They were conducting warrantless wiretaps, and now they are not.\nThe purpose of the law and the FISA court is to have judicial oversight in such a way as to protect top secret information necessary to national security.\nWhat is most intriguing about this situation is that the very people who fought against warrantless wiretaps so hard are now fighting FISA oversight. The ACLU wanted the warrantless wiretapping to stop and it did.\nThe only logical conclusion to be drawn from all this is the ACLU does not want surveillance of any type and does not have America's national security at heart.\nThe fact is that this kind of surveillance is essential to America's national security, and oversight by FISA is a legitimate reform. The ACLU should just butt out of national security matters.