Bush asked the House to renew a surveillance law that expired this month. The surveillance law was known as the Protect America Act of 2007; it would also add legal immunity for telephone companies. The main reason why Bush wants to renew this law is due to the lawsuits phone companies such as AT&T, Sprint, & Verizon are facing after turning over phone records without court orders after 9/11. The Senate passed a bill that includes immunity; the House version of the bill does not contain immunity. Two Senators and two Reps. said that Bush is using scare tactics to renew the bill. This is a difficult issue because the phone companies were complying with the government, but at the same time they violated people’s rights. Hopefully in the next few months the Senate and House can work together regarding future surveillance law issues.
This is a class blog for the students of POLSCI 426: Congressional Politics at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.
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2 comments:
I'd like to know more about the exact nature of the lawsuits mentioned, but I suppose that probably isn't out there. I mean I would even admit to some sort of distinction between my own personal expectations of text message privacy vs. that of a more general public interest, without granting the blanket immunity that Bush appears to favor - which is basically tantamount to a fully legal warrantless serach policy that I would expect a lot of people think is just wrong, in addition to being unconstitutional. In any case if the gov't forced or even coerced companies to comply with them via the PAA then they shouldn't be culpable for that, but that certainly doesn't lead to Bush's conclusion of retroactive immunity for all. Hell, just tack it on top of the debt bill he's leaving the country with.
First off these is no Constitutional Right to Privacy, although some claim it is in one of the follwing: First, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, or 14th Amendment. The Supreme Court has said privacy is in the due process clause of the 14th amendment, but then again it is not spelt out in so many words. The question is just how much privacy are you entiltled to?
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