In ’03, Hints of Skepticism by Sotomayor on Expanded Wiretapping

WASHINGTON — Judge Sonia Sotomayor expressed skepticism in March 2003 about the expanded government surveillance powers in the USA Patriot Act, citing what she referred to as its broader authority “to impose nationwide wiretaps with little judicial supervision” and to monitor Internet use in search of terrorists.

“Whether and how these statutes will be challenged in court is difficult to discern, but suffice it to say that traditional Fourth Amendment law does not permit searches and seizures without particularized suspicions of illegality,” Judge Sotomayor told law students in a guest lecture at the Indiana University law school in Indianapolis six years ago.

Her remarks on legal issues arising from the Bush administration’s response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, represent the most detailed indication to surface so far of her approach to executive power and counterterrorism, a high-profile area that has sharply divided the Supreme Court in recent terms.

Throughout the lecture, which she provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee this week as it prepares for her Supreme Court confirmation hearing, Judge Sotomayor was cautious. She described legal issues and lower-court rulings about them without taking explicit personal stands.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/us/politics/17documents.html?_r=1