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"Only one tribunal ever adopted a practice of forcing counsel upon an unwilling defendant in a criminal proceeding. The tribunal was the Star Chamber."-U.S. v Faretta , 422 U.S. 806 (1975)

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Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act." ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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Remember the public uproar?

Meow!

Remember the public uproar over the decision by George W. Bush to require phone companies to help the U.S. government's hunt for domestic terrorists by conducting warrantless wiretapping of customers?

Dozens of lawsuits followed, by consumer groups and by customers, seeking to hold AT&T and other  carriers liable for invasion of privacy. Congress gave the companies retroactive immunity.

Now a federal judge in San Francisco has thrown out the lawsuits, saying that Congress was clear about its "unequivocal intention" when it passed a bill last year giving immunity to phone carriers in the wiretapping program.

But Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker of the U.S. District Court in Northern California also gave the green light to another lawsuit challenging the very legality of Bush's electronic surveillance program (separate from the phone companies' liability) and scheduled a hearing for Sept. 1. This puts the Obama administration in the awkward position of having to go to court to defend the Bush surveillance program.

"The Obama administration is now going to have to defend the Bush program of electronic surveillance," said Jon Eisenberg, who represents two lawyers who claim they were wiretapped without warrants when they worked for a now-defunct Islamic charity, Al-Haramain.

In 2005, after media leaks, President Bush acknowledged that he had ordered the National Security Council to intercept phone calls and e-mail between Americans "with known links" to suspected foreign terrorists without first seeking approval from a special intelligence court, as required by a 1978 law. Democrats called for an investigation into the program's legality.

U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. last year declared that "the American people deserve a reckoning" for the abuses of the Bush administration. But at his confirmation, Holder softened his tone. Does Holder think the warrantless wiretapping that Bush authorized after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks constitutes an abuse of power? The answer could make this an interesting case.

-- Johanna Neuman

Suspicion that viewpoint discrimination is afoot is at its zenith when the speech restricted is speech critical of the government," Ridley v. Mass. Bay Transp. Auth., 390 F.3d 65, 86 (1st Cir. 2004)

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