No Summer Vacation for Attacks on our Civil Liberties

No Summer Vacation for Attacks on our Civil Liberties

It might seem that June has been a great month for advocates of civil liberties, particularly with the Supreme Court's stinging rebuke of the Bush Administrations to deny prisoners at Guantanamo due process and the rights of habeas corpus.

But if it seems that enemy combatants will finally get a chance to confront their accusers in court, Americans at home are facing the prospect of more spying on every phone call, every key stroke, every text message they send.

Nor will they ever be able to find out if their telecommunications companies spied on them and how extensive that spying was.

Why? Because it appears that Democrats may be getting ready to capitulate to a lame duck administration and effectively grant these telecommunications companies immunity from prosecution.

Even more cynically, they are dressing up this capitulation with a legal fig leaf. Congressional aides have leaked the information that a new bill will allow the “federal district court deciding on retroactive immunity [to] review whether there was 'substantial evidence' the companies had received assurances from the government that the administration’s program was legal.”

In other words, these companies only have to demonstrate that the Bush Administration told them the spying was legal and they're off the hook, not just for the spying they've allegedly engaged in, but for all future spying. As long as our government gives them a “Get out of Jail Free” card in advance, they can spy on as much as they want, and we'll never know if, when, or how much.

A New York Times June 18^th editorial entitled, “Mr. Bush v. the Bill of Rights,” notes that “approving [such] immunity would be tantamount to retroactively declaring the spying operation to have been legal.” Even worse, according to this editorial, is that the new “compromise” bill would give the government “too much leeway to acquire communications in the United States without individual warrants or even a showing of probable cause, greatly reduce judicial review, and remain in force for six years, which is too long.”

What should anger all Americans is that this important legislation which undermines our Constitutional right to be free of unreasonable search and seizure is being passed in the last days of a Presidential administration when voters are on vacation, distracted with high energy costs, and generally not paying attention to anything except the election campaigns.

Sidelining this legislation would do nothing to jeopardize current and ongoing efforts to fight terrorism. Current FISA legislation still lets the Bush Administration spy now and get a warrant later.

So why is Congress rushing to pass this ill-considered immunity for telecommunications companies and an even worse sell out of our civil liberties? And where is the Democratic leadership of Steny Hoyer, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and yes, Barack Obama, on this issue?

Maybe Americans should call their representatives and tell them that even if they're on vacation, they're not out to lunch when it comes to their basic rights and corporate accountability.