JURIST - Paper Chase: ABA calls on Bush to stop domestic surveillance or change laws

[JURIST] The American Bar Association [profession website] called on President Bush Monday to stop warrantless domestic surveillance [JURIST news archive] or change the laws to make it legal. At the Association's midyear meeting in Chicago [press release] the ABA's policy-setting House of Delegates voted on several policy proposals [JURIST report] set out in the report of a special ABA task force [ABA Journal report; member profiles] set up to investigate the domestic surveillance initiative and adopted a resolution stating that both national security and constitutional freedoms need to be protected.

The resolution opposed "any future electronic surveillance inside the United States by any US government agency for foreign intelligence purposes that does not comply with provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act" and asked President Bush to abide by the constitutional limitations placed on the president or work with Congress to enact new legislation if he believes current laws are inadequate. ABA President Michael Greco [official profile] stressed that the issue is not that surveillance should be stopped per se but it should not be done unilaterally. Reuters has more.

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