Leon vs. Pauley…our freedoms rest on the final outcome
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” – The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
Well we all knew this was coming didn’t we as yesterday U.S. District Judge William Pauley betrayed our Constitution by negating our right to privacy as per the Fourth Amendment. And he did so with his ruling that the National Security Agency’s (NSA) ‘sticking their nose into our private business’ phone-tracking program is indeed legal.
Negating the December 16th ruling that came down from U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon that stated the NSA’s surveillance program is actually unconstitutional, Judge Pauley justified his ruling by stating that what the NSA is doing “represents the government’s counter-punch” needed to eliminate al-Qaida’s terror network by connecting fragmented and fleeting communications.
But didn’t Obama say al-Qaeda is decimated and on the run…but I digress…
And so I say NO way to Pauley’s ruling as all that needs to be done is to listen in on those of a ‘certain’ ethnicity and ‘certain’ religious persuasion…oh wait…that would be racial profiling wouldn’t it…the chief Obama political correctness no-no. Better the NSA spy and invade the privacy of everyday innocent Americans than focus their attention on those they know damn well are the only ones they need to keep tabs on.
And so political correctness wins out yet again and ‘We the People’ lose as there goes our Fourth Amendment rights to privacy and to be protected against unreasonable searches and seizures.
To which I say NO way as those determined to kill will always find a way to do so.
And this snooping…this out and out spying on innocent Americans just in case they might someday maybe get involved in criminal activity should be blatantly in-your-face unconstitutional to anyone who has even a moniker of understanding about our constitutionally given rights and protections.
Sadly, Judge Pauley just does NOT get it as he continued that the government learned from its previous mistakes and “adapted to confront a new enemy: a terror network capable of orchestrating attacks across the world” and that the bulk data-collection program (data mining) was part of that adjustment.
Pretty words that negate the very heart of the Fourth Amendment as it dismisses the underlying premise of privacy and unreasonable searches and seizures, thus allowing the Obama government in effect to initiate a police state…to be Big Brother…and to iron fist rule over us all.
And the problem here is that Judge Pauley’s ruling should NEVER have happened but did because the previous ruling by Judge Leon (who was appointed to the bench by Republican George W. Bush in 2002) was issued as a preliminary injunction against the program, which is well and fine, but then Leon stayed his injunction “in light of the significant national security interests at stake in this case and the novelty of the constitutional issues,” which allowed for an appeal by the Justice Department, which they did post haste.
Judge Leon’s ruling stated that the government “does not cite a single instance in which analysis of the NSA’s bulk metadata collection actually stopped an imminent attack” yet in (Clinton appointee) Pauley’s ruling it states just the opposite.
“Surely, such a program infringes on ‘that degree of privacy’ that the founders enshrined in the Fourth Amendment,” which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures, Leon said while Pauley stated that 15 separate judges on the surveillance court have held on 35 occasions that the data collection program is legal. So the final ruling to reconcile the two opposing decisions according to the ACLU…who plans to appeal their case to the Second Circuit in Manhattan…could be reached by the U.S. Supreme Court.
And if that’s the case ‘We the People’ are screwed big time as lost on most of those currently sitting on the bench…and assuredly to be lost on any Obama nominees to the bench…is the fact that NO one should be able to read our letters, track our phone calls, or monitor our internet usage, except if there is an undeniable and reasonable suspicion that we have committed or are in the process of committing a crime…period.
And so as the Leon ruling vs. Pauley ruling works its way through the Appellate Court and maybe up to the Supreme Court, ‘We the People’ can only hope and pray that the right thing is done in the end and that the Constitution’s words are honored…but I won’t hold my breath that they are.
http://thepatriotfactor.blogspot.com/2013/12/op-ed-leon-vs.html