Intellectual Property Law

FISA

By Susan Crawford

eWeek reports that House Republicans are planning to force a vote on the Senate’s version of the FISA amendments - the version that would guarantee retroactive immunity to the telcos that cooperated with the NSA.

(Here’s a useful CRS report comparing the House and Senate bills more generally.)

Someone suggested today that I go back and read the Church Committee reports on the NSA’s Shamrock and Minaret programs (link) and the legislative history of FISA.  It is astounding how infrequently the Church Committee backdrop to the entire FISA discussion is mentioned.  So I’ll mention it here.

Statutory immunity for the telcos would be a belt-and-suspenders effort - AT&T itself concedes that “Current law ? provides a complete defense to any provider who in good faith relies on a statutory authorization,” or some other governmental promise.  So what’s the downside of judicial review of the legality of the telcos’ actions?  We should know what happened and why - there is so much to understand about surveillance in this country.  Plug:  Eric Lichtblau’s new book, Bush’s Law:  The Remaking of American Justice.

It’s been a busy week - sorry for the sketch-like posts.  We’re marching towards the end of classes.

Full post as published by Susan Crawford Blog on April 25, 2008 (boomark / email).