Anna Taylor, Hugo Black and Samuel Adams

From American Civil Liberties Union v. National Security Agency
Case No. 06-CV-10204. August 17, 2006.


"The President of the United States, a creature of the same Constitution which gave us these Amendments, has undisputedly violated the Fourth in failing to procure judicial orders as required by FISA, and accordingly has violated the First Amendment Rights of these Plaintiffs as well."

"James Madison wrote that: -- The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny. THE FEDERALIST NO. 47, at 301."

"Justice Black wrote that -- The founders of this Nation entrusted the law-making power to the Congress alone in both good and bad times. It would do no good to recall the historical events, the fears of power and the hopes for freedom that lay behind their choice. Such a review would but confirm our holding that this seizure order cannot stand. Youngstown, 343 U.S. at 589.

"With all its defects, delays and inconveniences, men have discovered no technique for long preserving free government except that the Executive be under the law, and that the law be made by parliamentary deliberations. Youngstown, 343 U.S. at 655 (Jackson,
J., concurring)."

"Justice Black wrote, in Youngstown:

'Nor can the seizure order be sustained because of the several constitutional provisions that grant executive power to the President. In the framework of our Constitution, the President’s power to see that the laws are faithfully executed refutes the idea that he is to be a lawmaker. The Constitution limits his functions in the lawmaking process to the recommending of laws he thinks wise and the vetoing of laws he thinks bad. And the Constitution is neither silent nor equivocal about who make laws which the President is to execute. The first section of the first article says that ‘All legislative powers
herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States.' Youngstown, 343 U.S. at 587-588."

"Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote:

'It is during our most challenging and uncertain moments that our Nation’s commitment to due process is most severely tested; and it is in those times that we must preserve our commitment at home to the principles for which we fight abroad. Any process in which the Executive’s factual assertions go wholly unchallenged or are simply presumed correct without any opportunity for the alleged combatant' to demonstrate otherwise falls constitutionally short.
Hamdi, 542 U.S. at 532, 537."

"The Government appears to argue here that, pursuant to the penumbra of Constitutional language in Article II, and particularly because the President is designated Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, he has been granted the inherent power to violate not only the laws of the Congress but the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution, itself. We must first note that the Office of the Chief Executive has itself been created, with its powers, by the Constitution. There are no hereditary Kings in America and no powers not created by the Constitution. So all “inherent powers” must derive from that Constitution."

"The irreparable injury necessary to warrant injunctive relief is clear, as the First and Fourth Amendment rights of Plaintiffs are violated by the TSP. See Dombrowski v. Pfister, 380 U.S. 479 (1965). The irreparable injury conversely sustained by Defendants under this injunction may be rectified by compliance with our Constitution and/or statutory law, as amended if necessary. Plaintiffs have prevailed, and the public interest is clear, in this matter. It is the upholding of our Constitution."

"As Justice Warren wrote in U.S. v. Robel, 389 U.S. 258 (1967):

'Implicit in the term ‘national defense’ is the notion of defending those values and ideas which set this Nation apart. . . . It would indeed be ironic if, in the name of national defense, we would sanction the subversion of . . . those liberties . . . which makes the defense of the Nation worthwhile.' Id. at 264."

IT IS SO ORDERED.

Date: August 17, 2006

ANNA DIGGS TAYLOR
UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

American Civil Liberties Union v. National Security Agency
Case No. 06-CV-10204

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In 1979, Anna Diggs Taylor became the first black woman judge to be appointed to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. Nineteen years later, she became the first black woman Chief Judge for that circuit as well.

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This is the most thoroughly depressing court case I have ever read in my life. Not because of Justice Taylor's decision. But because this case ever arose. And that Team Bush knows most Americans don't even care. That's why Team Bush is now appealing Justice Taylor's decision.

The President here argues the Constitution has granted him the "inherent" authority to violate the US Constitution. Nothing in the Constitution allows the President to violate the Constitution, since the Constitution itself creates the powers of the President. Nowhere does the Constitution say the President has the right to violate the Constitution. This is no different than saying the rules to Go Fish say that I can break the rules to Go Fish. Seven year old kids try to say this when playing Go Fish. It is pretty pathetic that a 60 year old man is now trying to say this.

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Go here to read the entire decision:

http://www.aclu.org/images/nsaspying/asset_upload_file689_26477.pdf