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Relying on 'Reasonable' Beliefs of Bush and Hayden

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Message Ron Fullwood
"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."

Probable cause is defined by the "totality of circumstance" test established in Illinois v. Gates (462 U.S. 213) (1983), overturning the two-pronged test in which prosecutors tried to rely on an informant's "veracity," "reliability" and "basis of knowledge" and were found by the Illinois Supreme Court to be "highly irrelevant".

The flawed assertions by the prosecution in the 'Illinois' case sound as close as can be to Bush's and Hayden's 'reasonableness' standard. Where is the 'totality of circumstances' in the wide net they cast with their random wiretaps and data mining?

The FISA law doesn't leave any room for their loose standard of judgment. That's why we established the FISA courts. It's absurd for the Bush regime to assume they alone should have the authority to unilaterally determine whether they have met the threshold required to conduct surveillance on Americans. That judgment should be made within the democratic system of due process that our representatives clearly intended for the FISA to represent.

The fourth amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure that the FISA court relies on to make their judgements are intended to restrain our government and its elected representatives as they perform their duties; to act in a manner which preserves the promises of democracy and provides for free expression, debate, advocacy, and representation in our political and legal system. Without these constitutional protections, it is impossible for the government to act decisively on the assumption it has the full weight of the American people behind any decision it might make.

In wartime, a weak franchise may wrongfully view opposition as treason and seek to crush it. But, in the absence of the full consent of the governed, and in the shunning of the very constitutional protections our leaders swore to uphold and defend, such a heavy hand by the omnipresent government could rightly be seen as tyranny.

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Ron Fullwood, is an activist from Columbia, Md. and the author of the book 'Power of Mischief' : Military Industry Executives are Making Bush Policy and the Country is Paying the Price
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