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<font size=3><br><br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -
PLEASE FORWARD TO ALL LISTS<br>
</font><font face="Bookman Old Style, Bookman" size=3> <br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2>January 17, 2006<br>
<br>
Contact: <br>
Michael Avery, President, 617-335-5023<br>
Heidi Boghosian, Executive Director, 212-679-5100, ext. 11<br>
</font><font face="Bookman Old Style, Bookman" size=3> <br><br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2>NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD
SUPPORTS SUIT AGAINST PRESIDENT BUSH TO HALT ILLEGAL ELECTRONIC
SURVEILLANCE<br>
<br>
The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) will be providing legal counsel to the
Center for Constitutional Rights and its attorneys in a suit to enjoin
President Bush from engaging in illegal electronic surveillance without
court orders. Michael Avery, President of the NLG, will be handling
the case on behalf of the Guild and working with lawyers from the Center
itself. Avery is a constitutional law professor at Suffolk Law
School in Boston. <br>
<br>
NLG President Michael Avery stated, “The president has no power under the
Constitution to conduct electronic surveillance without a warrant.
His claim that his role as commander in chief of the military gives him
this power is an attempt to create an imperial presidency, in which the
president is not subject to checks and balances by either the judiciary
or by Congress. President Bush’s actions are a threat to the
continued existence of American constitutional democracy.”<br>
<br>
The Lawyers Guild noted that the suit is based on the fact that the
Fourth Amendment forbids searches and electronic surveillance without a
court order, and that Congress has explicitly provided that the only
legal way to conduct electronic surveillance in national security cases
is with a court order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court or
through ordinary criminal channels with a warrant from a United States
District Court. The only exceptions to this requirement do not
apply to the surveillance the president has authorized. Congress
has made the surveillance that the president is conducting a criminal
offense, a felony punishable by a five-year prison term.<br>
<br>
The Executive Director of the Guild, Heidi Boghosian, noted, “The Center
for Constitutional Rights has played an essential role in providing legal
assistance for victims of the president’s abuses of power, such as the
prisoners at Guantanamo and others. The Guild is proud to provide
our lawyers to the Center to help them halt the illegal electronic
surveillance that is making it difficult for them to carry on their
important work.”<br>
<br>
Founded in 1937 as the first racially integrated national bar
association, the National Lawyers Guild is the oldest and largest public
interest/human rights bar organization in the United States, with more
than 200 chapters. The Guild has a long history of representing
individuals whose rights the government has violated by abusing its
powers in the name of national security. Guild members defended
FBI-targeted individuals and helped expose illegal FBI and CIA
surveillance, infiltration and disruption tactics (COINTELPRO) that the
U.S. Senate "Church Commission" hearings detailed in 1975-76
and which led to enactment of the Freedom of Information Act and other
specific limitations on federal investigative power.<br>
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<font size=3 color="#FF0000">The Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br>
(415) 863-9977<br>
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<a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">
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