IP: DOJ to monitor client/lawyer comms - action called "terrifying"

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64663-2001Nov8.html

The Justice Department has decided to listen in on the conversations of 
lawyers with clients in federal custody, including people who have been 
detained but not charged with any crime, whenever that is deemed necessary 
to prevent violence or terrorism.

Attorney General John D. Ashcroft approved the eavesdropping rule on an 
emergency basis last week, without the usual waiting period for public 
comment. It went into effect immediately, permitting the government to 
monitor conversations and intercept mail between people in custody and 
their attorneys for up to a year at a time.

The move, which the Justice Department said was necessary "in view of the 
immediacy of the dangers to the public," stunned defense lawyers and civil 
libertarians. They assailed it as an unconstitutional attack on the right 
to counsel and, in the words of American Civil Liberties Union official 
Laura W. Murphy, "a terrifying precedent."

<snip>


For archives see:
http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/