Great news out of the Senate Judiciary Committee:
The FISA Amendment Act was reported out of Committee this afternoon without addressing retroactive immunity for telecom companies.
That means it will go to the floor with no retroactive immunity - and can only be added to the FISA Amendment Act through an amendment. And it will be much harder for retroactive immunity to be added now, simply because it now requires at least a majority of Senators to support it. And let's not forget - Chris Dodd has pledged to stop any legislation that would grant immunity for the telecom companies.
It will be a lot more difficult for those who would enable the erosion of our Constitution to find the votes necessary to stop immunity on its own than it would be for us to find the votes needed to sustain a filibuster of the bill as a whole if it included immunity.
Today is a great victory for all of us -- and another example of Chris Dodd's leadership in the Senate.
And if you contribute right now, that's EXACTLY the kind of leadership you'll see in the White House.
If it wasn't for our efforts, together, retroactive immunity would be well on its way to sailing through the Senate ... largely unnoticed.
The fight continues, for sure, but this was a big victory today.
Update
Greg Sargent of TPM: Election Central explains some of the details of what happened today:
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.
Essentially, the FISA Amendment Act as it's being reported from the Senate Judiciary Committee simply does not have any language on retroactive immunity in it. Not for immunity. Not against immunity.
We expect the fight to continue, but as amendments to the bill reported by the SJC today.
Comments
I'm confused.
Is telecom immunity in the FISA bill (as Glenn Greenwald seems to imply with his update VI and onwards )???
Clarity please!
No - immunity is not addressed in the bill at all.
I'm glad. The telecom companies need to pay the full price for this. If it ends up as asbestos-level lawsuit madness, yes, it might not be pleasant.
*However*, it will guarantee that, for a long, *long* time, these companies won't even *think* about knowingly breaking laws in the some later political kickback. I hope Qwest eats these companies for dinner.
A little puzzled why there are Republicans supporting this immunity - if one wants to ensure the rule of law, financial incentives to do so will guarantee it. And this is a very strong one.
Oops. I meant "in the hope of later receiving some political kickback".
Qwest lost contracts for not playing along, so if the immunity goes through the precedent has been set that there is an *economic incentive to ignore Congress*. Think about the danger of that.
Thank you for standing up for the rule of law Senator Dodd!!
Hey, that reminds me!
What's the point of this bill at all then? Why is FISA being amended?
What power is Congress giving to the President NOW?
Ugh. Horrid realization. Now I'm far less glad.