Rob Andrews: “if tonight the National Security Adviser walked in the Oval Office and said, ``Mr. President, we believe there is an…”

“if tonight the National Security Adviser walked in the Oval Office and said, ``Mr. President, we believe there is an imminent attack about to occur in the United States, and we want to listen in on a phone call,'' we think there should be no doubt that the President has the authority to say, ``Yes, listen in on that phone call,'' to protect the United States. But at some point the emergency power ends, and the normal rules of law must obtain. Certainly that point comes sooner than 90 days after the request is made, which can be renewed and renewed and renewed without a decision of an independent Federal judge. We have a law in place that says that within 72 hours of that emergency our President must go before independent Federal judges in a private, secret proceeding and justify the decision to listen to the calls of Americans or read their e-mails. 99.9 percent of the time since 1978 that has worked. There is simply no record, there is simply no justification to overturn that decision. This is the most expansive, frightening, and unreasonable expansion of government power since Japanese Americans were unlawfully interred during the Second World War.”