New NSA domestic spying exposed as Obama stonewalls court challenges

`` Under the FISA act of 1978 as well as other legislation, Congress had specifically waived sovereign immunity in relation to unlawful surveillance, allowing those spied upon to sue. The Obama Justice Department, however, advanced the argument that the Patriot Act of 2001 had effectively reinstated the government’s immunity from such suits. This amounts to a claim that this reactionary legislation provided a legal cover for the government to carry out criminal acts.''