Larry Klayman
Supremes toss ball back in NSA spy case
By Larry Klayman
We the People gave it a shot. Having won the biggest victory ever against our increasingly tyrannical federal government by succeeding in having an intellectually honest federal judge, the Honorable Richard J. Leon, enjoin the collection of highly personal telephonic metadata on nearly the entire citizenry, pending appeal, we then sought to have the U.S. Supreme Court take up and nail the coffin shut on the unconstitutionality of the Obama administration's evil scheme.
In effect, in our successful case styled Klayman et al. v. Obama et al. ("Klayman I") 1:13-cv-00851, (see freedomwatchusa.org), we asked the high court to leapfrog over the intermediate appellate court to which the Obama Justice Department had appealed Judge Leon's decision and immediately settle the matter once and for all, to decide whether or not tapping into every American's phone was legal. Judge Leon had ruled on Dec. 16, 2013, that this Fourth Amendment violation of our constitutional rights was "almost Orwellian," and that is typical of a police state. But, he then stayed the implementation of his order so the Obama Justice Department could appeal his decision.
Last Monday, April 7, 2014, the justices of the Supreme Court – all of whom are recommended for the bench by establishment politicians, nominated by presidents and then confirmed by the U.S. Senate – took an exit stage left and decided not to grant our request, leaving the Obama Justice Department's appeal to wind its way slowly through the lower courts. While there may have been some legal logic to the justices' decision not to hear the case now – and indeed our victory even if not yet implemented stays fully in tact and is of great legal precedent during the appellate process (since the high court does not ordinarily allow for an immediate review until the lower appellate court has taken up the case) – this is not an ordinary situation.
The stark reality is that we Americans, much like the people of communist China and communist Russia, are being subjected to a highly oppressive government regime that eavesdrops on our every movement and communication to coerce and enslave us into submission, if not destroy anyone who might "step out of line" and challenge its authority. Accordingly, every second this tyranny continues is one second too much! But the justices of the Supreme Court chose to sidestep quick action to resolve the constitutional issues once and for all, leaving the National Security Agency (NSA) and its sister spy agency, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), free to continue to trample on the privacy rights of the American people.
Yet, there may be a strategic silver lining in the Supreme Court's refusal to step in now. In effect, the justices have handed Judge Leon a carte blanche to take intervening action since his Dec. 16, 2013, decision finding the NSA's spy program patently illegal will stay in effect as the case winds its way slowly and inevitably up to the Supreme Court.
During this time period, we will keep the pressure on the NSA and the CIA, which is also a defendant in our class action suit, as this agency has been using the same illegal tools of technological espionage on the American people the NSA has. Indeed, just recently Sen. Dianne Feinstein – the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and one of those in the establishment who furthered the illegal spying along with complicit Republicans like Rep. Mike Rogers and, of course, Obama himself – vehemently complained when she learned that the CIA was even intercepting and accessing her communications and those of her staff. Apparently, there is no honor among thieves, as the saying goes.
To keep the pressure on and move our cases to trial, I moved to have Judge Leon remove the stay on his preliminary injunction, moved for class certification in the class action suit known as Klayman III and asked Judge Leon to enter a default judgment in a companion case. Soon a motion for summary judgment will be filed – that is a quick final judgment that does not have to await trial – in Klayman I, the case that gave rise to the victory in December. I have also pushed to have Judge Leon order that the parties move quickly into the discovery phase on the two counts he did not rule on, which comprise violations of the First and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution. Those involve protecting our freedom of speech, association and due process rights.
The Obama administration and its so-called Justice Department, which is little more than a lackey for the socialist "Mullah in Chief" under his criminally minded attorney general, Eric Holder, have tried to throw a monkey wrench into our efforts to move things along to a quick litigated conclusion in all cases. I am confident however, now that the Supreme Court has thrown the ball back to Judge Leon, that this fine and fearless jurist will act forcefully and with all due speed.
I have said before that this nation needs more judges like Leon and his compatriot the Honorable Royce C. Lamberth of the same federal court, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Lamberth, during my days as founder, chairman and general counsel of Judicial Watch (I now head Freedom Watch, which I also founded), ruled that President Bill Clinton had committed a crime when he illegally released the Privacy Act-protected file of a woman who claimed that he harassed her in the Oval Office, Ms. Kathleen Willey.
This truly is a world marked by establishment domination over the masses. It is repugnant that our nation, under its current corrupt leaders, has become another gulag state reminiscent of the Soviet Union and now modern-day Russia, not to mention the new world power China, where its citizens, to keep them and foreign visitors in check, are subjected to round the clock total surveillance of their telephonic communications and the internet.
We must exhaust all legal means to wage a peaceful revolution, and these cases concerning the NSA and CIA offer some of our greatest hope. But if the courts do not step in and end this ever-increasing and now unbearable government tyranny, then violent revolt surely is imminent, not because I advocated it, but because the people at large will have had enough!
© Larry Klayman
We the People gave it a shot. Having won the biggest victory ever against our increasingly tyrannical federal government by succeeding in having an intellectually honest federal judge, the Honorable Richard J. Leon, enjoin the collection of highly personal telephonic metadata on nearly the entire citizenry, pending appeal, we then sought to have the U.S. Supreme Court take up and nail the coffin shut on the unconstitutionality of the Obama administration's evil scheme.
In effect, in our successful case styled Klayman et al. v. Obama et al. ("Klayman I") 1:13-cv-00851, (see freedomwatchusa.org), we asked the high court to leapfrog over the intermediate appellate court to which the Obama Justice Department had appealed Judge Leon's decision and immediately settle the matter once and for all, to decide whether or not tapping into every American's phone was legal. Judge Leon had ruled on Dec. 16, 2013, that this Fourth Amendment violation of our constitutional rights was "almost Orwellian," and that is typical of a police state. But, he then stayed the implementation of his order so the Obama Justice Department could appeal his decision.
Last Monday, April 7, 2014, the justices of the Supreme Court – all of whom are recommended for the bench by establishment politicians, nominated by presidents and then confirmed by the U.S. Senate – took an exit stage left and decided not to grant our request, leaving the Obama Justice Department's appeal to wind its way slowly through the lower courts. While there may have been some legal logic to the justices' decision not to hear the case now – and indeed our victory even if not yet implemented stays fully in tact and is of great legal precedent during the appellate process (since the high court does not ordinarily allow for an immediate review until the lower appellate court has taken up the case) – this is not an ordinary situation.
The stark reality is that we Americans, much like the people of communist China and communist Russia, are being subjected to a highly oppressive government regime that eavesdrops on our every movement and communication to coerce and enslave us into submission, if not destroy anyone who might "step out of line" and challenge its authority. Accordingly, every second this tyranny continues is one second too much! But the justices of the Supreme Court chose to sidestep quick action to resolve the constitutional issues once and for all, leaving the National Security Agency (NSA) and its sister spy agency, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), free to continue to trample on the privacy rights of the American people.
Yet, there may be a strategic silver lining in the Supreme Court's refusal to step in now. In effect, the justices have handed Judge Leon a carte blanche to take intervening action since his Dec. 16, 2013, decision finding the NSA's spy program patently illegal will stay in effect as the case winds its way slowly and inevitably up to the Supreme Court.
During this time period, we will keep the pressure on the NSA and the CIA, which is also a defendant in our class action suit, as this agency has been using the same illegal tools of technological espionage on the American people the NSA has. Indeed, just recently Sen. Dianne Feinstein – the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and one of those in the establishment who furthered the illegal spying along with complicit Republicans like Rep. Mike Rogers and, of course, Obama himself – vehemently complained when she learned that the CIA was even intercepting and accessing her communications and those of her staff. Apparently, there is no honor among thieves, as the saying goes.
To keep the pressure on and move our cases to trial, I moved to have Judge Leon remove the stay on his preliminary injunction, moved for class certification in the class action suit known as Klayman III and asked Judge Leon to enter a default judgment in a companion case. Soon a motion for summary judgment will be filed – that is a quick final judgment that does not have to await trial – in Klayman I, the case that gave rise to the victory in December. I have also pushed to have Judge Leon order that the parties move quickly into the discovery phase on the two counts he did not rule on, which comprise violations of the First and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution. Those involve protecting our freedom of speech, association and due process rights.
The Obama administration and its so-called Justice Department, which is little more than a lackey for the socialist "Mullah in Chief" under his criminally minded attorney general, Eric Holder, have tried to throw a monkey wrench into our efforts to move things along to a quick litigated conclusion in all cases. I am confident however, now that the Supreme Court has thrown the ball back to Judge Leon, that this fine and fearless jurist will act forcefully and with all due speed.
I have said before that this nation needs more judges like Leon and his compatriot the Honorable Royce C. Lamberth of the same federal court, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Lamberth, during my days as founder, chairman and general counsel of Judicial Watch (I now head Freedom Watch, which I also founded), ruled that President Bill Clinton had committed a crime when he illegally released the Privacy Act-protected file of a woman who claimed that he harassed her in the Oval Office, Ms. Kathleen Willey.
This truly is a world marked by establishment domination over the masses. It is repugnant that our nation, under its current corrupt leaders, has become another gulag state reminiscent of the Soviet Union and now modern-day Russia, not to mention the new world power China, where its citizens, to keep them and foreign visitors in check, are subjected to round the clock total surveillance of their telephonic communications and the internet.
We must exhaust all legal means to wage a peaceful revolution, and these cases concerning the NSA and CIA offer some of our greatest hope. But if the courts do not step in and end this ever-increasing and now unbearable government tyranny, then violent revolt surely is imminent, not because I advocated it, but because the people at large will have had enough!
© Larry Klayman
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