Feds appealing warrantless wiretapping court defeat

The Obama Administration is appealing the first and likely only lawsuit resulting in a ruling against the secret National Security Agency warrantless surveillance program adopted in the wake of the 2001 terror attacks.

US District Judge Vaughn Walker in December awarded $20,400 each to two American lawyers illegally wiretapped by the George W. Bush administration, and granted their counsel $2.5 million for the costs litigating the case for more than four years. Although Judge Walker had called it “unlawful surveillance,” he went soft on the government because the authorities, he said, believed they were protecting the country in the aftermath of the worst terrorist attack on US soil. Judge Walker did not declare the administration’s so-called Terrorist Surveillance Program unconstitutional, and he declined to issue punitive damages to punish the government for wiretapping in the country without warrants. Instead, the judge granted the two spied-upon lawyers for the now-defunct Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation charity $100 a day for each of the 204 days their telephone calls were wiretapped beginning February 2004, an amount they sought. In addition, they requested about $200,000 each in punitive damages, and the same amount to be awarded to the charity—all of which was denied. The government lodged what is known as a notice of appeal with the judge’s court Feb 18. The government has about three months to file its opening brief with the San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals.