Class Action Lawsuit: People of America

Couldn't a group of Citizens, from all over the world, approach international UN court in an international class action lawsuit against the people of the USA for funding the NSA which illegals intercepts phone calls and texts from private citizens of the world?

(honest question, not trying to stir)

reply to post by CALGARIAN


No.

Laws are neither made nor upheld against the lawmakers, by the lawmakers.

You're basically asking "Couldn't a group of abused children go in front of some abusive parents and ask for them to be nicer and stop hitting them?"

The answer is no.

technically don't the nsa have tame judges so under the rule of law its legal as theres judicial oversight? and slurping up peoples data from outside your jurisdiction is a spooks job and most laws normally detail the people of the country itself not anyone else so the USA can spy on the Russians with ease (and they can do the same as well) just with the occasional embarrassing moment when they get caught with their hands in the cookie jar

In a purely honest answer, if the NSA were actually to be cornered like that, they have a pretty good opening reply.

They can call for the Canadian, British, Australian, Italian, New Zealand and other Governments join them and account along side them for what has, in truth, been a cooperative effort of several nations combined.

It would take that level of confrontation and forum for the full extent of it to become clear though....as it's so easily spun to be strictly an American problem while the rest of the system functions unnoticed.

CALGARIAN
Couldn't a group of Citizens, from all over the world, approach international UN court in an international class action lawsuit against the people of the USA for funding the NSA which illegals intercepts phone calls and texts from private citizens of the world?

(honest question, not trying to stir)

To answer your question seriously, it would be great to take the beast on itself , as this is an abuse of human rights .But, there is always a but, The U.S.A. exempted itself from being tried for human rights or war crimes abuses in the international criminal court, by not being a participant.
Hypocrisy at it finest.

CALGARIAN
Couldn't a group of Citizens, from all over the world, approach international UN court in an international class action lawsuit against the people of the USA for funding the NSA which illegals intercepts phone calls and texts from private citizens of the world?

(honest question, not trying to stir)

In essence no. What citizens of all countries could do is get their own governments refuse cooperation with the USA. After all the NSA has used foreign INTEL organizations to help them with this spying. Intel of any kind should be for the country concerned only and remain withing the country's agencies.
What would be even better would be if the world citizens would ask for their respective governments to leave NATO for example. Ask USA bases to be closed i.e. Or even petition their respective governments to declare their country as neutral/non-aligned. End military cooperations with the USA and firmly isolate them in most things. But foremost end the sharing of Intel.
After all the so called Al-Quaida situation and so called "war on terror" as well the war on drugs are USA self inflicted "blow-backs". So petition your own country to sever the ties with the USA. Not "My problem" if NYC blows up, "They" created the enemy themselves.
Like telling your little boy: "I told you so not to ride the bike hands free, so don't cry because you now got open knees and knocked out teeth."

I hope you didn't expect a truthful answer, or an honest judge.

CALGARIAN
Couldn't a group of Citizens, from all over the world, approach international UN court in an international class action lawsuit against the people of the USA for funding the NSA which illegals intercepts phone calls and texts from private citizens of the world?

(honest question, not trying to stir)

To answer your question: No, double no, and triple no. Infact, your question doesn't even make sense, the International Court works different from how you believe going by your question.

To start with the international court can only give out non binding judgments, it's up to the nations involved to decide whether or not they'll follow them. So any result is essentially meaningless unless both parties agree to follow the ruling (this is typical of small nations that rely on diplomacy, not so much of large ones). The UN itself has no power to actually enforce a ruling from the court.

Second of all, individuals cannot bring cases to the international court, and cases cannot be brought against individuals. It's purely country vs country, this is due to the concept of sovereignty. Germany can bring a case against the US for spying but it can't charge any member of government (or any citizen for that matter) with the injustice, and the victims of spying in Germany can't bring the case forward themselves. So if Germany brought a case against the US they can't target the people doing the spying, furthermore if the court finds in favor of Germany they still have no authority to create a punishment because each nation can have different views on what is appropriate, and no nation will submit to anothers desired punishment. So after accepting guilt it's still up to the losing nation to decide on a punishment, if any. For this reason court rulings that nations typically obey focus on changing a policy rather than punitive action.

Third, all rulings are subject to veto power by the 5 permanent security council members. The US, China, France, England, and Russia. Even if the US agrees to abide by a ruling (the US doesn't, instead it takes them on a case by case basis and only follows the ones it wants) it has the authority to veto the ruling making it invalid in the first place so that there's nothing to follow.

And what international court has the legal authority over a sovereign nation? I guess they could attempt a tort case against the Executive Department of the United States of America, but on what standing would it be heard? One would have to show cause of injury, in which none was actually to be had.

While the natural right to privacy is universal, the protected right by law is inherently American and is applied to its citizens. That said, citizens abroad, who have been caught in the dragnet, could surely sue and have a case in my opinion.

Let's just wait for the UN to be invaded by the NSA and then maybe the UN will call the shots!. Realistically I hope not. They are all bad news! The UN collects massive amounts of money in an effort to achieve world domination.

I guess they could attempt a tort case against the Executive Department of the United States of America.

Very insightful comment. I would say that every other nation that used the data mining for their own benefit would look silly starting a tort case against their benefactor.

It would be my opinion that many countries in Eurasia would not look favorable at anyone looking for buried bodies of the rights they abused by using this information-provided by NSA snoops-to spy on their own citizens.

No, I don't think they would ever take that chance. Interesting question if there are any legal minds here.