NO warrantless wiretapping and NO telecom immunity

The latest House bill on wiretapping shows some marked improvements. As noted yesterday, it does not grant retroactive immunity to lawbreaking telecoms, but rather offers them the opportunity to defend themselves in a court of law. That is an enormously important move - and it should be applauded.

However - as noted by the ACLU's Washington legislative office, the bill continues to allow for "basket warrants," overturning the centuries-old legal principle that a warrant requires individualized suspicion:

We do, however, continue to have the same reservations we had about the RESTORE Act passed by the House last fall. The provisions in that bill and this new bill allowing for bulk collection of communications and dragnets are inconsistent with Fourth Amendment protections and thus we cannot endorse the bill.

The danger of "basket warrants" cannot be overstated - the potential for abuse is enormous. Just today, the New York Times reports that "Senior officials of the Federal Bureau of Investigation repeatedly approved the use of "blanket" records demands to justify the improper collection of thousands of phone records." Why would the US Congress give continued approval to an unconstitutional program that is already being abused by the Bush administration? Why would they accept the continued abrogation of our fourth amendment protections under assurances from this adminsitration that it won't abuse the power? The New York Times writes:

The bureau appears to have used the blanket records demands at least 11 times in 2006 alone as a quick way to clean up mistakes made over several years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to a letter provided to Congress by a lawyer for an F.B.I. agent who witnessed the missteps.

1. Call your representative and tell them "NO warrantless wiretapping and NO telecom immunity". You can reach the Capitol Hill Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Even if you do not know the name of your representative, they can connect you by looking up your address.

2. Sign the petition telling Speaker Pelosi and Hoyer "NO warrantless wiretapping and NO telecom immunity" at: www.aclu.org/encore.

If you are not currently on the ACLU action alert list, you can sign up at that website. It's important to get on the alert list so you can get updates when important legislation comes up.

3. Call 5 friends and ask them to call their representatives and sign the petition. You can find more information and talking points at: www.aclu.org/fisa