Big Brother, Big Dogs Are Looking At You

WASHINGTON, -- The 2012 U.S. Supreme Court term erupts on the First Monday in October, and in this first month the justices once again look at the intimate relationship between powerful authority and private citizens, and how intrusive that authority can become to protect the nation's interests.

Much of the pre-term analysis on the Supreme Court has focused on challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, which defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman for the purposes of federal benefits, and which the Obama administration has chosen to enforce but has refused to defend in court.

The Supreme Court is expected to deal with that issue later in the term, but in October the justices are scheduled to grapple with several cases involving surveillance.

On Oct. 29, the justices are set to hear argument in a case central to the law that allows spying on citizens in the United States without a warrant in the name of counter-terrorism just as a partisan Congress decides whether to renew the law.

Earlier in September, the U.S. House voted overwhelmingly to extend the latest version of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act for five more years. The U.S. Senate has yet to act.

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