🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <425@bacchus.MIT.EDU> wesommer@athena.mit.edu (William Sommerfeld) writes:
>In article <2868@well.UUCP> rab@well.UUCP (Bob Bickford) writes:
>Since when is the government's reading of publicly posted messages
>an invasion of privacy?  
>
    Since the Privacy Act of 1974 prohibited the federal government from
maintaining information on how any individual (citizen) exercises his
1st Amendment rights. Also, the 1st Amendment case law has a similiar,
however, less well defined prohibition.  Of course the NSA will claim
that their so-called intelligence gathering is more important than anyones
privacy or statutatory or constitutional prohibitions on invasion of
privacy.

    So, the answer to your question is, if the publically posted messages
apply to ones exercise of 1st amendment rights, see the Privacy Act of 1974,
and the 1st Amendment.  Otherwise, its only prohibited by the Privacy Act if
it is not necessary and relevant to the legitimate purposes of the NSA.

    By the way, the watch lists they use, are generally supplied by other
agencies and intercepted messages containing the watch words are referred
to that agency for review, etc...


-- 
Glen L. Roberts, Ann Arbor, Michigan
{!ihnp4!itivax!m-net!glr}
``No government door can be closed against the 1st Amendment and no
  government action is immune from its force.'' -Bursey v. US (466 F.2d 1059)