A8 Wednesday, December 18, 2013
NATION
Roswell Daily Record
Is 1976 robbery legally relevant to NSA spying? WASHINGTON (AP) — The small-time case of a Baltimore purse-snatcher who got nabbed after crank-calling his victim in 1976 laid the legal groundwork for today’s worldwide gover nment surveillance of telephone records in the name of protecting the U.S. from terrorists. The Supreme Court eventually heard the case of Michael Lee Smith, ruling that the government was allowed to collect his phone records to tie him to the purse-snatching. And since the Sept. 11 attacks, the National Security Agency has used that case to justify the collection of “metadata” — the duration of calls and the phone numbers used to make and receive them — of hundreds of millions of Americans and foreigners. But a federal judge and even the prosecutor who pressed for the pursesnatcher’s conviction say
the government has gone too far. Now, it may well take a new Supreme Court ruling to settle whether the Baltimore case more than three decades ago can apply to global government surveillance. “To say that a smalltime robbery on the street is a precedent for what was then unforeseen and massive electronic surveillance is simply a stretch, to put it mildly,” says former Maryland Attor ney General Stephen H. Sachs, who defended the gover nment’s use of phone records to arrest and convict Smith during an argument in front of the Supreme Court. The court sided with him in a 5-3 ruling in 1979. One justice abstained from the case. “For present purposes, you have to say that the trapping of information from one suspect is different, for God’s sake, than
trapping the data of every American who uses a telephone or the Inter net,” Sachs said in an interview Tuesday. “There’s a distinction of volume, of context. But that’s what the Supreme Court is going to have to decide.” Senate Intelligence Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein also invited the Supreme Court to weigh in. She noted that other judges have upheld the government’s right to collect phone records, as she said is necessary to safeguard against threats. “Those of us who support the call records program do so with a sincere belief that it, along with other programs, is constitutional and helps keep the country safe from attack,” Feinstein, DCalif., said Tuesday. ——— During the 1978 Supreme Court arguments, Sachs said the legal standard in Smith’s
AP Photo
This June 6, 2013, file photo shows the sign outside the National Security Agency (NSA) campus in Fort Meade, Md.
case was the same as in the days when telephone operators would place calls for clients. That legal standard was accepted as recently as last month, when senior U.S. District Judge Jeffrey
NASA orders urgent spacewalk repairs
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA has ordered up a series of urgent spacewalks to fix a broken cooling line at the International Space Station, a massive repair job that could stretch to Christmas Day. Station managers decided Tuesday to send two American astronauts out as soon as possible to replace a pump with a bad valve. The task will require two and possibly three spacewalks on Saturday, Monday and next Wednesday — Christmas Day. “The next week will be busy with space walks so not much tweeting from here,” NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio said from space via Twitter soon after decision was the announced. The spacewalks are taking priority over the launch of a supply ship from Virginia. The commercial delivery had been scheduled for this week, but is now delayed until at least mid-January. U.S.-led spacewalks have been on hold since July, when an Italian astronaut almost drowned because of water that leaked into his
AP Photo
This image provided by NASA shows the International Space Station with the Earth in the background on May 23, 2010.
helmet.
NASA hopes to wrap up the pump swap in two spacewalks and not have to do a third on Christmas Day. Astronauts have ventured outside of their spaceship on Dec. 25 only once, way back in 1973 during Skylab, America’s first space station. Shuttle astronauts finished a series of spacewalks on the Hubble Space Telescope on Christmas Eve 1999.
Half of the space station’s cooling system shut down last Wednesday, forcing the six-man crew to
turn off all nonessential equipment, including some science experiments. Because of the valve failure, one of the two cooling lines became too cold.
The cooling system, which runs ammonia through the lines, is critical for dispelling heat generated by on-board equipment.
While the astronauts are safe and comfortable, NASA wants the system back up to full strength, in case of another failure that could leave the orbiting outpost even more vulnerable than it is right now.
Flight controllers tried in vain to fix the valve remotely, then came up with a plan to use another valve to regulate the temperature. Some success was reported, and for a while, engineers thought the space station could limp along with this short-term solution. But on Tuesday, managers opted for spacewalks right now. Spare pumps are on board. This is the same pump — a bulky 780-pound bundle — that was replaced by spacewalking astronauts in 2010. Three spacewalks were needed then. The lessons learned may enable Mastracchio and astronaut Michael Hopkins to finish the job more quickly. Mastracchio, a veteran spacewalker, and Hopkins, a first-time space flier, trained for just such a repair before rocketing into orbit. They have been prepping all week, just in case of just such a decision. “Have not looked out the window in 4 days,” Mastracchio said in a tweet. “Too busy building space suits. Where did I put my gloves?”
Miller in San Diego ruled that the NSA’s collection of telephone records was constitutional in a case that linked a phone number in California to one used by a suspected operative for al-Shabab, a
Somali terror group. The NSA says it does not listen to the content of the calls, nor does it read Internet messages without specific court approval to do so on a case-by-case basis.
Minn. archbishop steps down amid allegation
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — St. Paul-Minneapolis Archbishop John Nienstedt announced Tuesday that he’s stepping down from public ministry while police investigate an allegation that he improperly touched a boy during a public photo session four years ago, an accusation he strongly denies. The announcement is the latest blow to an archdiocese that has faced intense scrutiny since a for mer employee went public with claims that church leaders mishandled sexual abuse allegations. In a letter posted on the archdiocese’s website, Nienstedt said he is accused of touching the boy on the buttocks during a photo session following a confirmation ceremony in 2009. Confirmation is a Roman Catholic sacrament during which people confirm their faith. The church considers people who have gone through the process to be responsible for their own spiritual
growth. Nienstedt said he learned of the accusation over the weekend and doesn’t know who is making the claim. Nienstedt had already been facing public calls for his resignation. In recent months, police have launched investigations into several abuse claims and Nienstedt’s top deputy stepped down. On Sunday, Nienstedt went before two services at a suburban Minneapolis church to apologize, telling parishioners: “I am here to apologize for the indignation that you justifiably feel. You deserve better.” Nienstedt was a polarizing figure in Minnesota even before the clergy abuse scandal flared. Some of the archdiocese’s 825,000 Catholics were angered in 2010 after he mailed out a DVD against marriage, and gay angered again in 2012 after the church spent $650,000 in a failed effort to ban same-sex marriage in Minnesota.
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