“E Pluribus Unum” not accepted by District Court
Saturday, August 14th, 2010Yesterday, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals asking for reinstatement of its case against the federal government regarding the warrantless wiretapping of American citizens, Jewel v. NSA. The case had been dismissed by the District Court. Here is the court’s twisted logic as to why the case was dismissed:
…so many Americans have had their communications and communications records illegally obtained by the government, no single person has legal “standing” to challenge the ongoing program of government surveillance.
Huh? It brings to my mind Joseph Stalin’s famous quote: “One death is a tragedy; a million is a statistic.” The Court really thinks that so many of us have had our rights violated that we just can’t have just one person seek retribution? Or as the EFF explains,
Unless corrected, the District Court’s ruling risks creating a perverse incentive for the government to violate the privacy rights of as many citizens as possible in order to avoid judicial review of its actions.
This is part of the EFF’s continuous efforts to “Stop the Spying” via “fighting these illegal activities on multiple fronts.”

