ACLU Asks Court to Strike Down Spying Law

Claiming that the FISA Amendments Act puts innocent Americans' telephone calls and e-mails at risk, a brief filed in federal court by the American Civil Liberties Union is requesting the court to strike down this law. A part of the ACLU's lawsuit to stop the government from conducting surveillance under the law, this is the first legal brief challenging the constitutionality of the new wiretapping law.

According to ACLU, as the FISA Amendments Act utterly fails to protect U.S. residents' privacy and free speech rights, it is the most sweeping surveillance bill ever enacted by Congress and should be struck down. According to the FISA Amendments Act (FAA), the Bush administration will have virtually unchecked power to intercept the international and in some cases domestic – emails and telephone calls of law-abiding Americans. According to the new law, the government can conduct intrusive surveillance without ever telling a court who it intends to spy on, what phone lines and email addresses it intends to monitor, and where its surveillance targets are located. The government doesn’t even have to disclose why it's conducting the surveillance or whether it suspects any party to the communication of wrongdoing.