law professors weigh in on spying

Last week, the Congressional Research Service, a non-partisan
research arm of the Library of Congress, released a
memorandum concluding that "it appears unlikely that a court
would hold that Congress has expressly or impliedly
authorized the NSA electronic surveillance operations."
Moreover, the CRS opined that the DOJ's analysis "does not
seem to be as well-grounded as the tenor of that letter
suggests."

Monday, a group of 14 law professors and former government
officials, including the Deans or former Deans of Yale,
Stanford, and the University of Chicago Law Schools, a former
Director of the FBI, a former Deputy Attorney General, and a
former Acting Solicitor General, released a letter that
concludes, "[the] DOJ letter fails to offer a plausible legal
defense of the NSA domestic spying program." It also notes
"serious questions about the validity of the program under
the Fourth Amendment."

The CRS memo and the law professor letter serve to highlight
the plain truth that the domestic surveillance program is
neither lawful nor constitutional. As the great Justice Louis
D. Brandeis recognized, the Constitution has "conferred, as
against the government, the right to be let alonethe most
comprehensive of the rights and the right most valued by
civilized men." Warrantless domestic surveillance violates
this sacred right and endangers the foundations of freedom
upon which the United States of America was built.

As Samuel Adams once said, "The liberties of our country, the
freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all
hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all
attacks." Visit our Action Center and tell your Senators and
Representative to support hearings to get to the bottom of
the NSA program.