SJC punts on telecom immunity as the FISA markup bill (S 2248) goes on to full Senate; House passes much better bill (HR 3773)

Congress Takes Up FISA Markup Bill

By PAMELA HESS – 5 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate Judiciary Committee punted on Thursday over whether to shield telecommunications companies from civil lawsuits for allegedly helping the government eavesdrop on Americans.

That decision — the main sticking point in a rewrite of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act — will be left to the full Senate. The FISA law dictates when the government must obtain court permission to conduct electronic eavesdropping, and President Bush has promised to veto any rewrite that does not provide legal immunity to telecom companies. Bush argues that the lawsuits could bankrupt the companies and reveal classified information.

About 40 civil lawsuits have been filed against telecom companies alleging they broke wiretapping and privacy laws.

The Senate panel rejected, 11-8, an attempt to strip the immunity provision out of the bill.

Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said granting immunity would give the Bush administration a "blank check" to do what it wants without regard to the law. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the panel's top Republican, also is leery of full immunity. He says court cases may be the only way Congress can learn exactly how far outside the law the administration has gone in eavesdropping in the United States.

When the full Senate takes up the bill, Specter is likely to offer a compromise that would shield the companies from financial ruin but allow lawsuits to go forward by having the federal government stand in for the companies at trial.

The House, meanwhile, prepared to vote on a Democratic surveillance bill that would expand court oversight of government surveillance inside the United States while denying immunity to telecom companies. ... click the link at the beginning for the full article

Very informative commentary from First Amendment lawyer Glen Greenwald

There are several significant events today in the campaign to prevent the granting of amnesty to lawbreaking telecoms and to preserve the warrant requirement and other safeguards for government eavesdropping. I will post updates here as they occur.

First, the House will vote later today on its version of a newly amended FISA law (the RESTORE Act) which is infinitely better than the bill approved by Jay Rockefeller's Senate Intelligence Committee. The House bill contains far more safeguards and does not contain any form of telecom amnesty. Several weeks ago, the House was scheduled to vote on that bill but it was pulled by House leadership at the last minute, presumably because it lacked the votes to pass.

But one reason it lacked the votes was because several Democratic opponents of warrantless eavesdropping -- such as the excellent Rep. Rush Holt of New Jersey -- announced that they would vote against the House bill, because it lacked sufficient oversight safeguards. But Rep. Holt, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, has spent the last several weeks working for improvements to the bill -- including added FISA oversight powers and Congressional reporting requirements -- and he now intends to vote for it. ... click the link above for the full article with many updates

Status of (HR 3773)

Status of (S 2248)