Feeling discouraged about the passivity of the Senate? Enraged about the Orwellian "Justice" department? Today, some good news: Meet someone who's standing up for the constitution:
New Jersey Attorney General Zulima Farber as been targeted by Gonzales as Justice sues Jersey to keep telcos quiet
The U.S. government has sued the New Jersey Attorney General's office on grounds of security concerns to prevent it from asking telephone companies if they gave customer call records to the National Security Agency.
The Department of Justice wants to stop the disclosure of confidential and sensitive information, according to the lawsuit filed in Trenton, NJ, on Wednesday, a day before phone companies were due to reply to subpoenas issued by the New Jersey attorney general.
"Compliance with the subpoenas issued by those officers would first place the carriers in a position of having to confirm or deny the existence of information that cannot be confirmed or denied without causing exceptionally grave harm to national security," the lawsuit said.
New Jersey Attorney General Zulima Farber sent subpoenas to AT&T, Verizon Communications, Cingular Wireless, Sprint Nextel and Qwest Communications International on May 17, asking if they had cooperated with the NSA.
For background on federal "State Secrets" claims: see Georgia10:
DailyKos.com > Georgia10: "As I explained earlier, the state secrets privilege, once a rarity in our justice system, is now frequently used by this administration to terminate the most critical litigation of our time. [...] For the first time, a court will hold a hearing on the legality of the program."
ACLU of New Jersey Pushes Back: ACLU petitions for probe of phone-record access
Friday, June 16, 2006, BY RICK HEPP, Star-Ledger Staff
The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey yesterday delivered a petition with 1,300 signatures urging the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to investigate whether local telephone companies turned over records to the National Security Agency.
The petition came a day after the federal government sued Attorney General Zulima Farber and other state officials to stop them from seeking information about whether AT&T, Verizon and other phone companies provided customer records to the NSA without a court order.
Update: See
John Dean on ACLU v. National Security Agency: Why the "State Secrets Privilege" Shouldn't Stop the Lawsuit Challenging Warrantless Telephone Surveillance of Americans
Attorney General Farber and the ACLU of New Jersey make me proud to be from New Jersey today.
It's 2006: Is Your State Attorney General Standing Up for the U.S. Constitution?
It looks like the strongest 'pushback' to the Federal Government's unconstitutional domestic spying is coming from the states. If you are in the U.S., use this contact list to call your State Attorney General and ask them what they are doing to protect your constitutional rights.
Don't be a Westmoreland-of-the-Left... Arm yourself with knowledge:
There is hope:
"We have long since made clear that a state of war is not a blank check for the President when it comes to the rights of the Nation's citizens." -- Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, joined by Chief Justice Rehnquist, and Justice Scalia as the majority rejected the government's claim of unfettered presidential power in the Hamdi case.