Wednesday, July 09, 2008

FISA Passes, 4th Amendment Falls

Glenn Greenwald writes Congress votes to immunize lawbreaking telecoms, legalize warrantless eavesdropping. He notes that "Congressional Approval Falls to Single Digits for First Time Ever".

"The ACLU announced today that it will challenge this bill in court as soon as it is passed on the ground that its warrantless eavesdropping provisions violate the Fourth Amendment." If I remember correctly, the last time this went to the Supreme Court, the Robert's court ruled that the plaintiff didn't have standing because they didn't know that their phone calls were actually taped. I'm not sure how they'll get around that this time.

I like how Rachel Maddow put it on Countdown tonight. "What if Congress had responded to Watergate by immunizing the executive branch's lawbreakers and giving Richard Nixon sweeping new powers to snoop. Oh wait they just did, they just took 30 years or so to get around to it."

Wil Wheaton put it more succinctly:
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