The Senate Judiciary Committee punted on Thursday over whether to shield telecommunications companies from civil lawsuits for allegedly helping the government eavesdrop on Americans. That decision — the main sticking point in a rewrite of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act — will be left to the full Senate. The FISA law dictates when the government must obtain court permission to conduct electronic eavesdropping, and President Bush has promised to veto any rewrite that does not provide legal immunity to telecom companies. Bush argues that the lawsuits could bankrupt the companies and reveal classified information. About 40 civil lawsuits have been filed against telecom companies alleging they broke wiretapping and privacy laws.
The Senate panel rejected, 11-8, an attempt to strip the immunity provision out of the bill. Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said granting immunity would give the Bush administration a "blank check" to do what it wants without regard to the law. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the panel’s top Republican, also is leery of full immunity. He says court cases may be the only way Congress can learn exactly how far outside the law the administration has gone in eavesdropping in the United States.
When the full Senate takes up the bill, Specter is likely to offer a compromise that would shield the companies from financial ruin but allow lawsuits to go forward by having the federal government stand in for the companies at trial. The House, meanwhile, prepared to vote on a Democratic surveillance bill that would expand court oversight of government surveillance inside the United States while denying immunity to telecom companies…
This is pretty big. As some people have been speculating today, aides to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have confirmed to me that the version of the FISA bill that was just reported out of the Judiciary Committee does not — repeat, does not — contain retroactive immunity for the telecom companies. And a source close to Reid says that this is "most likely" the version that the Majority Leader will file a motion to proceed on. The aide declined to comment when this might happen, however, saying that it could happen next month. All in all, it looks like a big victory for opponents of telecom immunity.
Late Update: Here’s a bit more detail on what happened on the Judiciary Committee today. Sources say Senator Russ Feingold offered an amendment that would have stripped telecom immunity from the bill, but it was defeated. Then Senator Arlen Specter, the ranking GOPer on the committee, offered a "compromise" amendment saying that in these lawsuits the Federal government, and not the telecoms, would be the defendants. But because of a procedural difficulty Specter’s amendment wasn’t voted on — and Senator Patrick Leahy, the chair of the committee, essentially went around Specter’s amendment and moved to have a vote to report the bill out of committee without any telecom immunity in it. That passed along strictly party lines. And that’s where we are.
Civil liberties groups got a stunningly unexpected win Thursday as the Senate Judiciary panel passed their version of the new government spying bill out of committee without including a provision giving immunity to telecoms being sued for helping the government secretly spy on Americans.
The biggest winner from the development is the Electronic Frontier Foundation, whose suit against AT&T in federal court would almost certainly have been wiped out by the immunity provision.The provision – which was part of the version passed by the Senate Intelligence committee in mid-October – was widely expected to make it into the bill, due to the administration’s full court press on the issue, the telcos small army of lobbyists and the vocal support of California Democrat Dianne Feintstein. Feinstein’s vote was expected to reverse the Dems 10-9 advantage in the committee.
But after a long day of complicated finagling over technical amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and proposed alternatives to total immunity for companies such as AT&T and Verizon, committeee chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) decided to send the bill out of committee without an agreement on immunity.
I really don’t get the problem at all. Bush instituted a secret wiretapping scheme that involved domestic surveillance, and went ballistic when it was revealed by the New York Times. Since then, he’s been working at trying to retrospectively make it legal [which it never was and should never be]. Now, he wants retroactive immunity for the telecoms that went along with him, just like he wants retroactive immunity for his torture policies. Congress seems to be having a hell of a time saying, "No." It’s a no brainer. Ask first, then act. Don’t break the law and then try to be pardoned. It’s too bad that people went along with him. Next time, they’ll do a better job of picking their friends. This is just self-serving Bush tying up Congress with his perpetual BUllSHit as usual. Forget Bush’s legislation and focus on the business of getting us out of Iraq and other messes created by the Arrogant Duo. He can veto all he wants. It just leaves the existing FISA in place. Fine. We owe him nothing. It’s the other way around…
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