Rights groups prepare suits over domestic spying

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President George W. Bush’s domestic
spying program faces legal challenges by two U.S. civil
liberties groups who said on Tuesday they will seek court
orders to stop it immediately and permanently.

The American Civil Liberties Union said its lawsuit would
be filed against the National Security Agency in U.S. district
court for eastern Michigan on behalf of journalists, scholars,
attorneys and national nonprofit organizations that frequently
communicate by telephone and e-mail with people in the Middle
East.

The lawsuit, which also names NSA Director Army Lt. Gen.
Keith Alexander as a defendant, seeks a court order declaring
that the spying program is illegal and ordering its immediate
and permanent halt.

Separately, the New York City-based Center for
Constitutional Rights, which has provided legal aid to people
detained or interrogated in Washington’s declared war on
terrorism, said it would file a suit in federal court in
Manhattan.

That suit, naming Bush and the heads of security agencies,
challenges the eavesdropping program and seeks an end to it,
said an attorney for the group, Shayana Kadidal.

Bush acknowledged last month that he had authorized the NSA
to monitor the international telephone calls and e-mails of
U.S. citizens without first obtaining warrants in an effort to
track al Qaeda members and other terrorism suspects.

News of the program set off an outcry among both
Republicans and Democrats, who questioned whether the
administration was violating the Constitution by spying on
Americans.

The 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act makes it
illegal for the U.S. government to spy on Americans without
first getting approval from a secret federal court.

The ACLU said its legal complaint charges that the spying
program violates Americans’ rights to free speech and privacy
under the First and Fourth amendments of the Constitution.

The ACLU also charges that Bush exceeded his authority
under separation of powers principles.

Plaintiffs in the case believe their communications are
being intercepted by the NSA and that the program is disrupting
their ability to talk with sources, locate witnesses, conduct
scholarship, and engage in advocacy, the ACLU said.

Plaintiffs include authors and journalists such as
Christopher Hitchens and Tara McKelvey as well as James
Bamford, a leading expert on U.S. intelligence and the National
Security Agency.

Nonprofit groups that have joined the lawsuit on behalf of
their members and staff include Greenpeace and Council on
American Islamic Relations, the ACLU said.