President Ends Spying Program After Lawsuits

Center for Constitutional Rights
Press Release

PRESIDENT ENDS ILLEGAL DOMESTIC SPYING PROGRAM AFTER LAWSUITS

January 17, 2007, New York – Lawyers for the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), who sued President Bush for authorizing warrantless wiretapping, today cautiously applauded the Bush administration's decision to end the program and proceed with wiretapping only in accordance with the law and with judicial approval. For five years, the president has been authorizing warrantless wiretapping of Americans in direct violation of a criminal statute. When the secret program was disclosed, the president claimed that he had unilateral power to order wiretapping, against Congress's will and without judicial oversight. He has now fully retreated from that position, and agreed to engage in wiretapping only in accordance with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and only with judicial approval. Some attorneys remain skeptical: because of the secret nature of the FISA court, there is a possibility for the issuance of a blanket warrant that would, in effect, reinstate the president’s program.

“This decision restores the rule of law and ends a program that rested on the president's assertion that as Commander-in-Chief he can secretly order that federal criminal statutes be violated and Americans spied upon. That position was lawless,” said David Cole, one of CCR's lawyers on the case. “Today's decision, which comes two weeks before an appeal was to be heard in a case that held the President's program unconstitutional, restores the rule of law. The President should have reached this decision five years ago, but better late than never.”

CCR Legal Director Bill Goodman said, “We won. The president backed down from an illegal program, but there is now a clear need for legislation that makes such illegal forays impossible in the future. Until this order is made public, we have no way of knowing if it meets with the constitutional requirements that a court determine whether there is enough evidence (probable cause) to justify instituting surveillance. We brought our lawsuit because we believe courts should always have a role in supervising surveillance, and only time will tell whether the administration has genuinely come to the same conclusion.”

About CCR
The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) is a non-profit legal and educational organization dedicated to protecting and advancing the rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 by attorneys who represented civil rights demonstrators in the South, CCR is committed to the creative use of law as a positive force for social change.

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