Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Russ Feingold (D-WI), and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) announced today that the introduction of the Retroactive Immunity Repeal Act, a bill that would eliminate retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies that allegedly participated in President Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program. The immunity had been included in the FISA Amendment Acts of…
Tag: FISA
Obama: Renew PATRIOT Act provisions on domestic surveillance
David Kravets writes: The Obama administration is informing Congress it supports renewing three Patriot Act provisions expiring at year’s end, measures making it easier for the government to spy in the United States. In a letter to Patrick Leahy, the Vermont senator and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Justice Department on Monday suggested…
Feds invoke national secrets in wiretap case
The Obama administration, trying to derail a lawsuit over former President George W. Bush’s authority to wiretap Americans without court permission, has refused to take a position on the program’s legality and says a federal judge can’t decide that question because the crucial facts are national secrets. A ruling on whether Bush exceeded his constitutional…
Judge rejects challenge to overseas wiretap law
A judge rejected a challenge to a law letting the United States eavesdrop on overseas conversations Thursday, saying fears by Americans that their conversations will be monitored and their rights violated were ”purely subjective.” U.S. District Judge John Koeltl ruled that the latest version of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act could not be challenged by…