Kia Franklin

FISA Vote TOMORROW! What are you going to do TODAY?

So the FISA vote is TOMORROW. Christy Hardin Smith at FiredogLake sends out a great call to arms to people to speak out and tell their representatives why this issue is important. Time is running out. Wouldn’t you like to know that if this FISA compromise passes, you did everything in your power to make it as difficult as possible for the Senate to vote against our constitutional rights, and for the protection of corporate lawbreakers and governmental abusers of power? I would.

Senator Russ Feingold, one of the handful of steadfast defenders of our constitutional rights on this issue, speaks about why the FISA amendment would be terrible. He talks about why he is supporting Senator Chris Dodd’s amendment, which would strike retroactive immunity for the telecoms. The 8-minute clip of his speech on the floor, is available on The Raw Story, here.

If you can’t listen to the whole thing, here’s an important part of his speech, which gets at the civil justice aspect of the issue:

Now, proponents will argue that [under the FISA amendment] plaintiffs in lawsuits against the companies can participate in briefings to the court. Now this is true, but they’re not allowed any access to any classified information. Talk about fighting with both hands tied behind your back! Mr. President, the administration has restricted information about this illegal wiretapping program so much that roughly 70 members of this chamber, of this chamber, don’t even have access to the basic facts about what happened. Can you believe that? So let’s pretend that the plaintiffs will be able to participate in any meaningful way inthese proceedings… let’s not pretend that it will be meaningful.

…This result is extremely disappointing, it is entirely unnecessary and unjustified, and it will profoundly undermine the rule of law in this country. I cannot comprehend why Congress would take this action in the waning months of an administration that has consistently shown contempt for the rule of law, perhaps, most notedly in the illegal warrantless wiretapping program it set up in secret.

…If we want companies, Mr. President, to follow the law in the future, doesn’t it send a terrible message, and doesn’t it set a terrible precedent, to give them a get out of jail free card for allegedly ignoring the law of the past?

He also points out that current law already provides immunity from lawsuits for companies that comply with the current FISA law and provide the government information, as long as they receive a court order or a certification from the AG that no court order is needed. The law also instructs companies to refuse government requests that don’t comply with the law, and imposes liability on the companies if they fail to do this.

Posted at 12:59 PM, Jul 08, 2008 in FISA | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)