National Security Law Commons^™

The Deepening Crisis Of American Constitutionalism, Sanford Levinson

Georgia Law Review

Events since my Sibley Lecture in March 2005 have only underscored the importance of the general topic "Constitutional Norms and Permanent Emergencies"-whatever the adequacy of my own analysis. Probably the most prominent example is the controversy generated by disclosure of the National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance of phone calls of American citizens, undertaken without a scintilla of judicial approval, and by the Bush Administration's defense of the surveillance in spite of legislation, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), that seems quite clearly to make it illegal.' Also noteworthy, however, is the Bush Administration's continued assertions that it simply does not …