Federal Judge: NSA phone program likely unconstitutional - Polidicks

[quote]A federal judge ruled Monday that the National Security Agency program which collects information on nearly all telephone calls made to, from or within the United States is likely to be unconstitutional. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon found that the program appears to run afoul of the Fourth Amendment prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures. He also said the Justice Department had failed to demonstrate that collecting the so-called metadata had helped to head off terrorist attacks.[/quote] [url]http://www.politico.com/story/2013/12/national-security-agency-phones-judge-101203.html?hp=t1[/url]

My only thought was, "Yeah, you think?"

it's likely

Now they can't enjoy hearing phone sex.

Is there anything that the NSA does that's constitutional? (Legitimate question, not sarcasm.)

[QUOTE=Flazer210;43202951]Is there anything that the NSA does that's constitutional? (Legitimate question, not sarcasm.)[/QUOTE] I mean technically what they're doing now [I]is[/I] constitutional because it was approved by a court... This is how it always starts in law enforcement with rulings of unconstitutionality. It starts legal, then after people realize whats going on, a judge says its illegal (mostly climbing up the courts to the supreme court)

Freedom has no restrictions.

[QUOTE=pentium;43203033]Freedom has no restrictions.[/QUOTE] [img]http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/usgfx/const-1.jpg[/img] Except for the ones in here. Also, the ones in here: [t]http://libertylog.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/SCOTUS.jpg[/t] [url=http://www.nyclu.org/oped/op-ed-supreme-court-and-civil-liberties-during-times-of-war]And in war.[/url]

Doesn't the entire premise of unwarranted searching through information that pertains to individual people violate the fourth amendment? NSA is shady as fuck. Having access to anything you want on the internet is dangerous, especially in the age of information.

So it'll go up to the Supreme Court and then get smacked right back down because the NSA's got metaphorical guns to metaphorical heads.

[QUOTE=muffinmastah;43202938]Now they can't enjoy hearing phone sex.[/QUOTE] Requesting that comic where a businessman and his wife are about to have phonesex with each other, business man says, "I want to hear you say it" and Obama is in the next frame on the phone saying "Yeah we want to hear you say it"

Uh oh! Someone is in for a [I]major[/I] slap on the wrist!

no shit....

[QUOTE=muffinmastah;43202938]Now they can't enjoy hearing phone sex.[/QUOTE] It's the phone metadata, not the data itself.

[QUOTE=sloppy_joes;43203857]It's the phone metadata, not the data itself.[/QUOTE] I think he was joking.

[QUOTE=BFG9000;43203866]I think he was joking.[/QUOTE] I know, I just think some people are actually going to make that assumption.

The whole idea behind the NSA was that it was supposed to be secret. That's one of the main reasons that it was approved by secret courts. Now that everyone knows about it, it really has no purpose.

[QUOTE='[Seed Eater];43203090'][img]http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/usgfx/const-1.jpg[/img] Except for the ones in here. Also, the ones in here: [t]http://libertylog.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/SCOTUS.jpg[/t] [url=http://www.nyclu.org/oped/op-ed-supreme-court-and-civil-liberties-during-times-of-war]And in war.[/url][/QUOTE] The Bill of Rights puts restrictions on the federal government, not on the populace. Later amendments turned the tables, though.

[QUOTE=The golden;43203209]Everything. Because their secret courts rule that what they do is constitutional.[/QUOTE] So federal courst "just" need to rule the secret court unconstitutuional. [editline]16th December 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=Helix Snake;43203880]The whole idea behind the NSA was that it was supposed to be secret. That's one of the main reasons that it was approved by secret courts. Now that everyone knows about it, it really has no purpose.[/QUOTE] Secret is another word for "not discovered yet".

[QUOTE=darunner;43204437]The Bill of Rights puts restrictions on the federal government, not on the populace. Later amendments turned the tables, though.[/QUOTE] The constitution as a whole set the limits on what was acceptable and unacceptable freedom. Putting it down in writing codifies the limits. The boundaries of freedom are always limited so long as they are established by anything other than actual action.

[QUOTE=muffinmastah;43202938]Now they can't enjoy hearing phone sex.[/QUOTE] But you don't need wire taps to do this. I remember going on long road trips with a 6" portable B&W television and discovering that if you force the analog tuner to go below the minimum frequency setting, extremely minute adjustments would start picking up dozens of active phone calls. And you weren't just hearing one side or the other, you were like the man in the middle and heard all parties on the line. Mind you this was 15-20 years ago, I have no idea if it still works. I also didn't know if it was just picking up cordless phones or cellular phones (cellular phones more likely because out in the middle of nowhere.)

[QUOTE=GiGaBiTe;43210466]But you don't need wire taps to do this. I remember going on long road trips with a 6" portable B&W television and discovering that if you force the analog tuner to go below the minimum frequency setting, extremely minute adjustments would start picking up dozens of active phone calls. And you weren't just hearing one side or the other, you were like the man in the middle and heard all parties on the line. Mind you this was 15-20 years ago, I have no idea if it still works. I also didn't know if it was just picking up cordless phones or cellular phones (cellular phones more likely because out in the middle of nowhere.)[/QUOTE] You were probably picking up analog cell signals. GSM is digital and (poorly) encrypted, and everyone's transitioned to digital for 3G and onwards, so the effect you describe is almost certainly not possible (with just an analog TV tuner, that is) anymore.

Just an update here, even though a federal judge said this it really has no legal power to stop it. However it has hit the whitehouse as a slap in the face