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View Full Version : Judge Makes Feds Pay for Unwarranted Warrant-less Wiretap




Kludge
12-22-2010, 02:07 PM
"Earlier this year, when a judge ruled against the US government for wiretapping some lawyers working with the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation without getting a warrant, some people pointed out that the US government's best response might just be to say "okay" and go on with its life. The court has now made that an even easier decision by effectively slapping the wrist of the government, ordering it to pay $20,400 to each of the two lawyers.

Yes, if you share a a few songs you love with others, you may get fined millions of dollars, but if you're the US government, and you violate the 4th Amendment by spying on people without a warrant, you get fined $100 per day. And only for the two people who were able to bring a lawsuit because you screwed up and sent them the details of how you wiretapped them without a warrant. For everyone else who was wiretapped (or is still being wiretapped) without a warrant, you're out of luck, unless the government makes the same mistake with you, and then you go through years of trials to get $100 per day of wiretapping for your troubles. That said, the court did also require the government to pay these guys' legal fees, which amounted to about $2.5 million. But, still, the whole thing suggests it's unlikely that there will be any other legal challenges, and the US government can and will continue to break the law in the way it handles its wiretaps."

Article by Mike Masnick of Techdirt.

Original article can be found here: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101221/18122012373/judge-makes-feds-pay-pocket-change-to-two-lawyers-it-wiretapped-without-warrant.shtml

NYgs23
12-22-2010, 03:20 PM
So they have to pay money they seized from taxpayers. It's still not just when taxpayers have to foot the legal fees and damages racked up by the state. Rather, the bureaucrats, politicians, and cops should have to pay these bills out of their own pockets.