Groups Sue To Stop Bush Spy Program

Lawsuits In Two Cities Seek To Block Warrantless Wiretaps

(CBS/AP) 
But the New York lawsuit noted that federal law already allows the president to conduct warrantless surveillance during the first 15 days of a war and allows court authorization for surveillance of agents of foreign powers or terrorist groups.

Instead of following the law, Mr. Bush "unilaterally and secretly authorized electronic surveillance without judicial approval or congressional authorization," the lawsuit said.

The Center for Constitutional Rights maintained its work was directly affected by the surveillance because its lawyers represent a potential class of hundreds of Muslim foreign nationals detained after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

It said its attorney-client privilege was likely intercepted as it represented hundreds of men detained without charge as enemy combatants at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Station in Cuba and a Canadian citizen who was picked up at a New York airport while changing planes, sent to Syria and allegedly tortured and detained without charges for nearly a year.

The group said the surveillance program has inhibited its ability to represent clients vigorously, making it hard to communicate via telephone and e-mail with overseas clients, witnesses and others for fear the conversations would be overheard.

"The key battles in these cases are likely to come early when the government challenges the claims and then argues that the data that might prove what the plaintiffs have alleged cannot be disclosed due to national security concerns," says CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen. "So right off the bat we'll see a legal defense, not a factual one."

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan noted that rules on how the president can conduct surveillance were written before Congress enacted the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978.

The law was enacted after the disclosure of widespread spying on American citizens by various federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

The Detroit lawsuit said the plaintiffs, who frequently communicate by telephone and e-mail with people in the Middle East and Asia, have a "well-founded belief" that their communications are being intercepted by the government.

"By seriously compromising the free speech and privacy rights of the plaintiffs and others, the program violates the First and Fourth Amendments of the United States Constitution," the lawsuit states.