A group of Senators led by Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) have floated the Judicious Use of Surveillance Tools in Counter-terrorism Efforts (JUSTICE) Act, a bill that would significantly reform the FISA Amendment Act and the PATRIOT Act.
The JUSTICE Act seeks to oust the most abusive portions of the PATRIOT Act and abolish the critically maligned FISA Amendment Act which gave telecom companies immunity for participation in the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program.
Senator Feingold says the JUSTICE Act is designed to empower law enforcement while simultaneously guaranteeing that a citizen’s right to privacy and due process are not trampled in the process.
“Every single member of Congress wants to give our law enforcement and intelligence officials the tools they need to keep Americans safe,” said Feingold.
“But with the PATRIOT Act up for reauthorization, we should take this opportunity to fix the flaws in our surveillance laws once and for all. The JUSTICE Act permits the government to conduct necessary surveillance, but within a framework of accountability and oversight. It ensures both that our government has the tools to keep us safe, and that the privacy and civil liberties of innocent Americans will be protected.”
Abolition of the FISA Amendment Act which gives telecom companies immunity in warrantless wiretapping cases is a major push of the JUSTICE Act. Should JUSTICE succeed in Congress, not only will telecom be subject to privacy suits, but the courts will finally be free to uncover the size and scope of the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program.
“The bill would repeal the retroactive immunity provision in the FISA Amendments Act,” reads the prepared statement.
The act is also particularly critical of the PATRIOT Act’s so-called National Security Letters, or NSLs, which permit authorities to obtain private records without court order. Civil liberties groups have long feared that these clandestine letters would not go unabused, and various investigations have tangentially confirmed this fear.
JUSTICE will not completely eliminate NSLs, however. Instead, the letters will be subjected to renewed congressional oversight and a mechanism by which the details surrounding their creation and execution can be tracked.
“The bill rewrites the National Security Letter (NSL) statutes to ensure the FBI can obtain basic information without a court order, but also adds reasonable safeguards to ensure NSLs are only used to obtain records of people who have some connection to terrorism or espionage, and to provide meaningful, constitutionally sound judicial review of NSLs and associated gag orders,” the statement continues.
It is unclear if President Obama will support the JUSTICE Act given that he voted to uphold telecom immunity while he was a Senator.
Articles RSS