Today enough Democrats in Congress caved and voted yes on the FISA extensions that the bill was passed.
Baron Hill, IN-09, respected his oath of office and voted NO on this atrocity of a bill! Thank you, Rep. Hill, for standing up for our civil liberties and the Constitution.
This bill rewards the Bush administration for their illegal warrantless wiretapping. It simply adds more unconstitutional means for the Department of Justice to communicate with a different court secretly, in order to conceal the activities that should be reviewed and held to the light of due process and review. It rewards the telecommunications companies for their overtly illegal activities. Considering the telecoms have poured tens of millions of dollars into lobbyists and the pockets of members of Congress, one can only conclude the companies (and the Bush administration) bought themselves yet another unconstitutional law, introduced and voted on in less than 24 hours, not even enough time for any member to have pretend to have read or understand what the bill does.
The following may be attributed to Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office:
“It’s Christmas morning at the White House thanks to this vote. The House just wrapped up some expensive gifts for the administration and their buddies at the phone companies. Watching the House fall to scare tactics and political maneuvering is especially infuriating given the way it stood up to pressure from the president on this same issue just months ago. In March we thought the House leadership had finally grown a backbone by rejecting the Senate’s FISA bill. Now we know they will not stand up for the Constitution.
“No matter how often the opposition calls this bill a ‘compromise,’ it is not a meaningful compromise, except of our constitutional rights. The bill allows for mass, untargeted and unwarranted surveillance of all communications coming in to and out of the United States. The courts’ role is superficial at best, as the government can continue spying on our communications even after the FISA court has objected. Democratic leaders turned what should have been an easy FISA fix into the wholesale giveaway of our Fourth Amendment rights.
“More than two years after the president’s domestic spying was revealed in the pages of the New York Times, Congress’ fury and shock has dissipated to an obedient whimper. After scrambling for years to cover their tracks, the phone companies and the administration are almost there. This immunity provision will effectively destroy Americans’ chance to have their deserved day in court and will kill any possibility of learning the extent of the administration’s lawless actions. The House should be ashamed of itself. The fate of the Fourth Amendment is now in the Senate’s hands. We can only hope senators will show more courage than their colleagues in the House.”
