US appeals court rules defendant has no right to secret surveillance documents
The US Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit ruled Monday that a District Court in Chicago was wrong to allow a terrorism defendant’s lawyer access to secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court documents relating to his defendant. The [...] appeal demonstrates the complicity of the American legal system, particularly the higher courts, in the push by the executive branch to dismantle the separation of powers and establish the framework of a police state. The court order spins pragmatic arguments to obscure and conceal the anticonstitutional role of the FISA court in rubber-stamping the massive illegal spying apparatus of the US government. Hoping to stop future legal challenges, the ruling sharply warns lower courts against questioning the pseudolegal dictates of the FISA court. [...] The unanimous ruling of the three-judge appellate court was authored by Judge Richard Posner, a particularly right-wing judge appointed by President Ronald Reagan. Judge Posner was joined by Judges Michael Kanne and Ilana Rovner. Using language fitting of a military order, Judge Posner writes that Judge Sharon Coleman of the US District Court in Chicago “disobeyed” the FISA court law when she ordered that a defendant’s lawyer had the constitutional right to examine FISA documents pertaining to his case.
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