John & Matt
There is a provision in the law that allows the Executive to conduct
electronic surveillance without court order in the interests of "national
security." However, in a 1972 case, U.S. vs. U.S. District Court (407
U.S. 297) the Supreme Court found that this part of the law went against
the 4th Amendment and found it unconstitutional.
In fact, in another case (MITCHELL v. FORSYTH, 472 U.S. 511 (1985)) they found
that Attorney General Mithcell did not enjoy absolute immunity from national
security wiretaps he put into place in 1970. He got sued by a person they
tapped and the Supremes said that it was a proper suit.
John, if the law review articles you are reading are dated from between
1968 and 1972 then your interpretation of them is correct. If they are
after 1972, however, they should cite the new constitutional law.
Now, the passage of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in 1978
did open things up greatly for the feds because the court this act created
is essentially a rubber stamp on anything deemed to concern national security.
(In Bamford's Puzzle Palace an ex-NSA guy criticizes them for being too
lenient in their determination of what "national security is.)
I am still reading the laws so I am not sure if Congress has revised
the section in question to make it constitutional.
Jack Reed
> At 22:35 3/2/2000 -0500, Matthew Gaylor wrote:
> >John Gilmore <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >>...There's a theory I've
> >>seen in a couple of law review articles that says the US Executive
> >>Branch has the inherent authority to wiretap in national security or
> >>foreign intelligece cases, with or without a statute or court order
> >>(the other 2 branches of the govt).
> >>
> >> John
> >
> >
> >That's more than a theory. Jim Kallstrom admitted publicly about five
> >years ago that the bureau has a procedure for doing wiretaps without a
> >court order. But he added that they do so very sparingly and only in the
> >interests of national security.
> >
> >Regards, Matt-
> >
> >
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