Warrantless surveillance

"President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to spy on people in the United States without first gaining court approval.

A Times Editorial
Published December 18, 2005

President Bush apparently believes that fighting terrorism justifies any action he chooses, no matter how extralegal. But the United States is a nation of laws, and the president is constrained by them, too. That is why Bush's unilateral authorization granting the National Security Agency the power to wiretap American citizens and others in the United States without a warrant is so dangerously ill-conceived and contrary to this nation's guiding principles."