From Slate:
The New York Times, WaPo , and the Los Angeles Times lead with a federal appeals court's 2-1 decision to dismiss a case that had challenged the Bush administration's secret warrantless wiretap program. The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled that because the plaintiffs in A.C.L.U. v. N.S.A. could not prove they had incurred any direct injury as a result of the wiretapping, they were not qualified to file suit in the first place.
Even though the case was dismissed on what is essentially a technicality, the 6th Circuit's ruling still counts as a rare victory for an administration that has lately been doing its very best Anthony Young impersonation. The ruling effectively bars future suits from being brought: In order to prove injury, potential plaintiffs would need to present specific evidence that they had been targeted by the N.S.A.—but the 1953 "state secrets" privilege prohibits that sort of information from being released or discussed in court. As the ever-literate LAT notes, it's a classic Catch-22.
Our civil rights were tossed in the crapper because of a friggin technicality? WTF is this, Hitler's Germany?
IMPEACH THE MUTHA FUCKAS NOW! BEFORE ITS TOO DAMN LATE AND ALL OUR RIGHTS ARE GONE.
Tags: Bush, Wiretapping Americans without a warrant, Federal Fuckwits at the Helm
