Judge Finds Bush Wiretap Actions Violate the Law

Judge Finds Wiretap Actions Violate the Law - New York Times

Judge Taylor ruled that the program violated both the Fourth Amendment and a 1978 law that requires warrants from a secret court for intelligence wiretaps involving people in the United States. She rejected the administration’s repeated assertions that a 2001 Congressional authorization and the president’s constitutional authority allowed the program.

“It was never the intent of the framers to give the president
such unfettered control, particularly when his actions blatantly
disregard the parameters clearly enumerated in the Bill of
Rights,” she wrote. “The three separate branches of
government were developed as a check and balance for one another.”