Judge Hears Arguments on Federal Spying Program

JUDGE HEARS ARGUMENTS ON FEDERAL SPYING PROGRAM
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Adam Liptak]
In a lively oral argument lasting almost three hours, a federal judge in Manhattan indicated yesterday that he had serious reservations about the legality of a National Security Agency surveillance program that monitors the international communications of people in the United States. But the judge, Gerard E. Lynch, also said preliminary issues might keep him from ever deciding the question of whether the program was lawful. In a sweeping decision last month, Judge Anna Diggs Taylor of Federal District Court in Detroit ruled that the program was unconstitutional and ordered it shut down. The government filed an appeal immediately, and Judge Taylor has temporarily stayed her decision. At the beginning of yesterday’s argument, the second to consider the legality of the program, Judge Lynch said he would “devote little time to the First and Fourth Amendments.” Judge Taylor’s decision relied heavily on arguments based on them. Judge Lynch confined himself, instead, to questions about his ability to rule on the merits and, if he can, on whether the program violates the constitutional separation of powers. Judge Lynch distinguished military action abroad from domestic activity, and he indicated that Congress might have the power to limit the president’s authority to act within the United States.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/06/washington/06nsa.html
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