Legal Commentary

Senator Bill Nelson Lets Us Down Again, This Time on FISA

By Professor University of Miami School of Law

Senator Bill Nelson (“D”-FL) voted against stripping telco immunity from the FISA bill. That’s why they wouldn’t give me a straight answer the other day — they were planning the sellout all along. (See Calling My Senator About FISA [Updated]).

I am in no way surprised. This is the same Bill Nelson who voted for torture, after all. (See Senator Bill Nelson Votes for Torture.)

Florida, and the US, deserve better.

(It goes without saying that soon to be one-term Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL) also voted to support the ‘if the President says so, it’s legal’ version of liability.)

Update: the vote was 32-66, so they had plenty of company. Cf. Amanda Simon, ACLU Blog, FISA Vote, or How I Lost Complete Faith in Our Legislative Branch.

Vote tally on Dodd-Feingold-Leahy below.

YAYS 32 NAYS 66

YAYS:

Akaka
Baucus
Biden
Bingamon
Boxer
Brown
Byrd
Cantwell
Cardin
Casey
Clinton
Dodd
Dorgan
Durbin
Feingold
Harkin
Innouye
Kerry
Klobuchar
Lautenburg
Leahy
Levin
Menendez
Murray
Obama
Reed
Reid
Sanders
Shumer
Stabenow
Tester
Whitehouse
Wyden

NAYS:

Alexander
Allard
Barasso
Bayh
Bennett
Bond
Brownback
Bunning
Burr
Carper
Chambliss
Coburn
Cochran
Coleman
Collins
Conrad
Corker
Cornyn
Craig
Crapo
DeMint
Dole
Dominici
Ensign
Enzi
Feinstein
Graham
Grassley
Gregg
Hagel
Hatch
Hutchinson
Inhofe
Innouye
Isakson
Johnson
Kohl
Kyl
Landrieu
Lieberman
Lincoln
Lugar
Martinez
McCaskill
McConnell
Mikulski
Murkowski
Nelsen (NB)
Nelson (FL)
Pryor
Rockefeller
Roberts
Salazar
Sessions
Shelby
Smith
Snowe
Specter
Stevens
Sununu
Thune
Vitter
Voinovich
Warner
Webb
Wicker

Full post as published by Discourse.net on July 09, 2008 (boomark / email).