Posted by
Always To The Right on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 2:21:35 PM
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the convictions of three
terrorists convicted prior to 9/11 of working with al-Qaeda to attack
American interests. The three-judge panel ruled that the requirement
for warrants and Miranda warnings do not apply to American citizens living abroad,
which may surprise privacy advocates. The ruling will almost certainly
pique the curiosity of the Supreme Court in this session
The decision did not involve the warrantless surveillance of
communications between US and foreign locations, but it may have done
enough to undermine any challenge to that NSA program and even the
prevoius Gitmo decisions by the Supreme Court. In this case, the court
ruled that the Constitutional limits on the executive at war do not
apply to areas outside of American sovereignty, even when involving
American citizens. In Boumediene, the Supreme Court strongly implied the opposite, even with non-citizens.
Update: Saneworks
disagrees that tension exists. It seems to me that this decision
allows warrantless searches, including surveillance, on American
citizens abroad that would not pass muster within the US, which is
where that tension exists. They rely on a “reasonableness” standard,
but specific to the intel need and the location of the subject outside
the sovereignty of the US.