ACLU in Court Tomorrow to Challenge Unconstitutional Spying Law

Tomorrow, we'll be in court presenting oral arguments in our challenge to the unconstitutional FISA Amendments Act (FAA) — the law passed by Congress last year that gave the government virtually unchecked power to intercept Americans' international e-mails and telephone calls. As you may recall, we filed a lawsuit to stop the government from spying under the FAA less than an hour after the Act was signed into law by President Bush on July 10, 2008.

The case — Amnesty v. McConnell — was filed on behalf of a broad coalition of attorneys and human rights, labor, legal and media organizations. These groupsrely on confidential communications to do their work, and are therefore greatly compromised by the FAA.

In this short ACLU video, National Security Project Director Jameel Jaffer (who will be arguing the case tomorrow) discusses the FAA and its implications with two of our plaintiffs — The Nation's Chris Hedges and Human Rights Watch's Dinah PoKempner.

Please note that by playing this clip You Tube and Google will place a long-term cookie on your computer. Please see You Tube's privacy statement on their website and Google's privacy statement on theirs to learn more. To view the ACLU's privacy statement, click here.

To learn more about our plaintiffs and the issue at stake, visit www.aclu.org/faa. And be sure to check back for updates after tomorrow's hearing.