Lawyers Group Opposes Warrantless Spying

The American Bar Assn., meeting in Chicago, denounced President Bush’s warrantless domestic surveillance program, accusing him of exceeding his powers under the Constitution.

Since it was disclosed in December, the program has prompted a heated debate about presidential powers in the war on terrorism.

The nation’s largest organization of lawyers adopted a policy opposing any future government use of electronic surveillance in the United States for foreign intelligence purposes without first obtaining warrants from a special court set up under the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

The 400,000-member ABA said that if the president believed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was inadequate to protect Americans, he should ask Congress to amend the act.