Judge Anna Diggs Taylor ... an American hero and icon for all that our country stands for!

U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor

My eyes are tearing as I listen to the un-wingnuts on the radio behind me trying to diss this marvelous and courageous woman. What does the fact that she's either a woman or an African American or elderly have to do with her capability as a supreme icon of our judicial system.

The facts of the matter are simple: The Honorable Judge Taylor issued a judgment that the N.S.A. Spying program violated the First and Fourth Amendments to the Constitution ... and even violated the FISA Law which was passed to allow some additional Justice Department latitude in such spying.

I can do no better here than to include an exerpt that describes today's decision.

EXERPT BEGINS HERE

"Plaintiffs have prevailed, and the public interest is clear in this matter. It is upholding of our Constitution," Taylor wrote in her 43-page opinion.

Under the program, approved by President Bush in 2001 following the September 11th terrorist attacks, the government monitored conversations between people in the U.S and those in other countries. In her ruling, Taylor ordered the practice to be stopped immediately.

The U.S. Justice Department has appealed the decision and issued a statement calling the program "an essential tool for the intelligence community in the war terror." It added that the department believes the program is lawful and protects civil liberties.

After the program was uncovered by the New York Times in December 2005, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit on behalf of journalists, scholars and lawyers who said the program made it difficult for them to do their jobs. They believed that many of their contacts overseas could be targets of the program.

"At its core, today's ruling addresses the abuse of presidential power and reaffirms the system of checks and balances that's necessary to our democracy," the executive director of the ACLU, Anthony Romero, told reporters after the ruling.

EXERPT ENDS HERE

Even President Bush insisted that such spying as was at issue required warrants in one of his more eloquent speeches. (Of course, he won't discuss this statement today, nor will his Press Secretary, Tony Snow.)