Legal Commentary

FISA Thanks and Open Thread

By Jeralyn

I have two FISA thank yous to hand out.

The first is to Big Tent Democrat, who has been relentless in his opposition to the bill. I gave up on it long ago, believing there was no way around what happened today. I'm sorry my cynicism has proven true, and I'm appeciative that he keeps up the fight.

The second is to Colorado Congresswoman Diana DeGette who voted against the FISA bill and issued this statement. [More...]

“While H.R. 6304 is an improvement over our previous efforts, it still prevents the American public’s ability to hold telecommunications companies accountable for participating in the Federal Government's domestic warrantless surveillance program. Courts still have no real power to review the Administration's prior orders for surveillance activities. We may never learn the extent of the violations of Americans' privacy which may have occurred or companies which may have participated.

“Additionally, the strong protections against reverse targeting contained in prior House measures, which I supported, are absent from this bill. Reverse targeting, which refers to spying on Americans by targeting those abroad with whom they are believed to be communicating, opens a loophole for the Federal Government to violate the privacy of American citizens.”

Rep. DeGette also, by the way, voted against the most recent Iraq funding bill.

That's all I have on FISA for now, this is an open thread.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on June 21, 2008 (boomark / email).