Today is a sad day in American history. Let me begin by quoting the fourth amendment to the United States Constitution in its entirety:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

The debate over FISA, warrantless wiretapping, and telecom immunity has been swirling for quite awhile now. Beginning in 2005, when then Attorney General Gonzales confirmed the existence of a program that allowed the government to spy on American citizens without a warrant or probable cause, as reported in the New York Times.

So our government has been spying on ANYONE, WITHOUT a warrant, in the name of national security. But wait, whats the fourth amendment to our constitution, the nation’s holiest document, say again? NO unreasonable searches, NO warrants without probable cause. The Supreme Court held in Katz v. United States (1967), that the monitoring and recording of private conversations constitutes a “search” for Fourth Amendment purposes, and therefore the government must obtain a warrant before domestic wiretapping can be engaged in.

So if the government, and the telecommunication companies (Verizon, AT&T) spied on us, without a warrant, without probable cause, to catch “turr’ists”, they broke the law didn’t they? Shouldn’t we be investigating what really happened? Who was spied on? Why and to what extent?

We should be. But instead, today we not only expanded the power that the NSA and the Executive Branch has, we also gave them and the Telecom companies retroactive immunity for any law breaking they might have done, or might do as a result of them spying on us. This ends the 40 currently open lawsuits against the Telecoms and shields them against any in the future. The measure was approved by a vote of 69 to 28 in the Senate today. Senators Obama and McCain both voted for the measure.

I can’t put in the words how distressing this is. Have we not been trampled, steamrolled, and lied to enough in the last 7 years? Now not only can the government more easily and expeditiously spy on us, they can do it with no fear of repercussion. How could this be OK? How could this rabid expansion of executive power be allowed?

I’ve been asking a lot of questions in this post because this is a situation without logical answers. Without logic at all. To quote Benjamin Franklin:

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither.

And Sen. Fiengold’s closing remarks in his opposition to this act:

So I hope my colleagues will think long and hard about their votes on this bill, and consider how they, and their constituents, will feel about this vote five, ten or twenty years from now. I am confident that history will not judge this Senate kindly if it endorses this tragic retreat from the principles that have governed government conduct in this sensitive area for 30 years. I urge my colleagues to stand up for the rule of law and defeat this bill.

[EDIT]: I posted a link to the ACLU website with the same title as this post on reddit and it exploded! upvote if you’d like!

also, the ACLU is going to challenge this in court. They’re also running an ad in a major national newspaper with the names of dissatisfied citizens against this illegal encroachment on our rights. read more here and sign up here.

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