Surveillance Deal: Same Bad Law, New Bad Arguments

By Madison Powers, Guest Columnist

The bill revising the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) goes to the Senate floor for a vote today after being caught in the crunch of stalled legislation prior to the July 4th recess. It grants civil immunity to telecom companies who have, or may again, violate the Constitution with regard to warrantless electronic eavesdropping, and it carves out huge exceptions to the usual safeguards that protect citizens from promiscuous government fishing expeditions.

It was a bad bill a week ago, and it is still a bad idea whose time apparently has come. All the bad arguments for the bipartisan compromise remain largely the same, but now even fewer people are paying attention, and some new bad arguments have been added over the long weekend.