Well, the NSA scored a point over the ACLU this week. The appeals court threw out the decision about unwarranted wiretaps for a really stupid reason: the defendants couldn’t prove they had been spyed upon. Now, isn’t that a catch-22? If there was a warrant there could at least be a paper-trail proving they had been spied upon. However, since there is no paper-trail there can be no proof.
Ugh.
Of course, some folks out there will say something to the effect of “good people have nothing to fear about being spied upon—only criminals need to worry about that sort of thing.” This assumes that everyone in the government is a similarly good person and not someone who will misuse their position for personal gain. That kind of idealism makes Barack Obama look like a cynic!
Paper trails are important to our society; every branch of government requires checks and balances.
