Bipartisan group of senators introduce bill to declassify FISA court opinions

[marions ghost]

Source: Dailykos.com

A bipartisan group of eight senators introduced new legislation Tuesday that would require the Attorney General to reveal how the administration interprets the laws governing the massive surveillance programs conducted by the NSA. It would require the declassification of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court's opinions, a press release from Sen. Jeff Merkley states, "allowing Americans to know how broad of a legal authority the government is claiming to spy on Americans under the PATRIOT Act and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act."

“Americans deserve to know how much information about their private communications the government believes it’s allowed to take under the law,” Merkley said. “There is plenty of room to have this debate without compromising our surveillance sources or methods or tipping our hand to our enemies. We can’t have a serious debate about how much surveillance of Americans’ communications should be permitted without ending secret law.”

He's joined by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), who along with Sen. Mark Udall (C-CO), has been trying for two years to have these secret interpretations aired. Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Dean Heller (R-NV), Mark Begich (D-AK), Al Franken (D-MN) and Jon Tester (D-MT) have signed on.

This effort might actually help in the long stymied efforts to get these decisions declassified. The Electronic Frontiers Foundation has been involved in a byzantine effort under the Freedom of Information Act to see one particular opinion and has been ping-ponged between a district court, the FISC and the Justice Department, as all three play hot potato with the request. The ACLU has also just sued the government to compel the declassification of its interpretation of section 215, the so-called "business records" provision of the Patriot Act. A key, though perhaps reluctant ally for this effort is the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

(more at link)

Read more: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/06/11/1215364/-Bipartisan-group-of-senators-introduce-bill-to-declassify-FISA-court-opinions#

---

If nothing is wrong with secret FISA courts and they are protecting us, as some maintain, then why are these senators trying to act on this moment of greater public awareness thanks to Mr. Snowden?

[KamaAina]

1. What's (C-CO)?

Udall is a (D).

[PSPS]

2. "tipping our hand to our enemies"

“Americans deserve to know how much information about their private communications the government believes it’s allowed to take under the law,” Merkley said. “There is plenty of room to have this debate without compromising our surveillance sources or methods or tipping our hand to our enemies. We can’t have a serious debate about how much surveillance of Americans’ communications should be permitted without ending secret law.”

Of course, "our" refers to the top 0.1% for whom our government works exclusively, and "enemies" means, essentially, the American public at large.

[Myrina]

10. Didn't somebody else last week propose a bill to stop it from BUSINESSES only?

Or is all the valium I took still working?

[Coyotl]

3. "We can’t have a serious debate about how much surveillance of Americans’ communications ...

We can’t have a serious debate about how much surveillance of Americans’ communications should be permitted without ending secret law.” Merkeley

That's my Senator. And Wyden too! Go OREGON

[marions ghost]

4. Oregonians

[cascadiance]

5. CREDO just got on board and endorsed the bill....

Proud of my senators too...

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2013/06/11-1?print

[marions ghost]

9. Credo's credo sounds good:

WASHINGTON - June 11 - Following the news that Senator Merkley introduced a bill today to make public FISA Court opinions so that the American people know how the secret court is interpreting the law, CREDO Mobile, a longtime defender of civil liberties, released the following statement endorsing Sen. Merkley's bill:

"A secret court can't provide adequate checks and balances to a presidential administration that has the capacity to engage in virtually unlimited surveillance when it comes to our phone calls and internet activity," said Becky Bond, Political Director of CREDO Mobile. "There should be no classified ruling by a secret court that provides broad new powers for the government to spy on its own citizens who are not suspected of any wrongdoing. CREDO Mobile proudly endorses Senator Merkley's bill to bring much needed transparency to a process shrouded in secrecy."

CREDO has a long history of working to protect civil liberties and has fought for reader privacy, supporting legislation by Sen. Bernie Sanders and working to repeal Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, including urging Attorney General Eric Holder to correct the public record on a classified interpretation of Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act that allowed government agencies to collect personal information not linked to espionage or terrorism without a warrant.

CREDO also fought against unconstitutional changes to FISA that allowed warrantless wiretapping of Americans and granted telecom companies retroactive immunity for their warrantless wiretapping on Americans. CREDO is a long time and committed funder of civil liberties groups, including American Civil Liberties Union, Center for Constitutional Rights, Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression.
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2013/06/11-1?print

thanx for posting

[Coyotl]

34. I can't wait to get a CREDO Action e-mail with a petition.

CREDO Action is well worth following, so I signed up for e-mail alerts.

http://credoaction.com/

[marions ghost]

35. Watch out

they know you did that. You'll be generating some metadata.

Thanks for the link.

[Coyotl]

37. Yeah, some cyber-goon is taking a coffee break now and reposting Credo on her Facebook

cuz she's reading DU posts

[Mojorabbit]

27. Yay, this is what I have been hoping for. nt

[premium]

6. And my Senator,

Dean Heller. Glad he's on board with this.

[quakerboy]

32. Isnt it great to have Wyden

as the most conservative senator from Oregon, instead of the most liberal? Merkley has done far better than I had guessed. I rarely second guess votes Ive made, but I cant imagine Steve would have been any better.

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

33. Mine too and with Congressman DeFazio!

[dkf]

7. Thank you Edward Snowden...

[midnight]

8. Just knowing the interpretation of this mass surveillance programs conducted by the NSA

is the best place to start....

[marions ghost]

17. That's how I see it, a start

that will give us more information about what should happen.

[musiclawyer]

11. Anyone content with the status quo is a fool

Example: Dude moves in next door Your kid and his kid becomes friends. His kid emails your kid some terror related stuff his dad is into. Lets say the dad is deep in some crazy anarchy, white supremacy or terror stuff. It's like a car crash. Your kid keeps looking at the sites in question ..... Boom your kid is picked up and you don't know why. Not to mention all the stuff on your computer that x contractor and the NSA have read.

The above scenario assumes they got a warrant to go beyond your meta data. Problem # 1 is your defense lawyer can't help you under current law. FISA court is a freaking star chamber ...

Problem #2 is the unaccountable defense contractor might be looking at your mail and listening in on your phone calls for kicks.

Problem # 3 is the meta data itself. What it reveals to 3rd parties destroys any semblance of privacy even if you don't consider it a "search". Make it a felony prohibiting its sale by anyone, just like the laws that prevent bank employees from cleaning out your account, and I might be good with it.

But all in favor of the current law please raise your hands ......

[marions ghost]

15. I'm all for not collecting it in the first place

& extreme penalties for misuse. Good points.

The way it might be abused in your illustration is credible IMO. There's also the "chill" factor--where citizens don't feel free to (for ex) post on DU or attend a political rally.

Understand that by posting this I'm not saying it's the best or only way to go. We need even more protections. But I have to applaud any efforts to cut the power of FISA.

[Laelth]

12. Good idea, but I doubt much will come of it.

This is why:

When the Patriot Act, which authorized this type of surveillance, was up for reauthorization in 2006, 10 senators voted against it. This past December, an amendment that required the NSA to reveal the number of Americans surveilled was shot down by a 43 to 52 vote. Another amendment that would have applied more transparency to the program failed 37 to 54.

In 2009, meanwhile, Feingold and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) introduced an amendment during the markup of the Patriot Act reauthorization that would have revised Section 215 of the law so that an "individual’s sensitive personal records can only be issued where there is at least some tangential connection to terrorism." That amendment was rejected as well.

On Thursday morning, Durbin was in a told-you-so type of mood. He said the breadth and depth of the NSA's surveillance that had been revealed by The Guardian was legal, and while the Senate could change the law, "it's not going to happen."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/06/verizon-phone-records-nsa_n_3397058.html

Our government has shown no real desire for increased transparency. Let us hope that is changing now.

-Laelth

[marions ghost]

14. They are seizing the moment

--to further the cause. I'm sure there will be opposition, but it's a time for the constituents to weigh in. The reps are listening. 43 to 52 vote gives me some hope...

Brick by brick--that's how you tear down a wall.

[Laelth]

18. I certainly hope that you are right.

This could be just a token gesture to quiet down the grumbling masses, but it could lead to more. Only time will tell.

-Laelth

[marions ghost]

26. I agree

the jury is out on the effectiveness of this.

They'd better get beyond token gestures IMO.

[think]

28. My glass is still half full

But I'm pretty thirsty.....

[Coyotl]

36. The seized the moment when the cash cow calved and grabbed a teat

and have been sucking taxpayer cash ever since at an astounding rate. These are not minimum wage jobs, rather huge profits, CEOs, and high paid tech work for Bush's gang of cronies. It is important to consider who is sitting at the spy terminals with the capability of abuse to do whatever they might imagine, like spying on Democrats without having to send in burglars!

[think]

13. K&R /nt

[frylock]

16. because they clearly hate obama and they especially hate america

[Catherina]

19. Congressman Amash doing the same. Also said "Whistleblower protections are limited for #NSA"

Michigan's Third District · amash.house.gov


Justin Amash ?@repjustinamash 50m

- I've heard reporters say Snowden could have shared concerns w/Members of Congress. Not true. Whistleblower protections are limited for #NSA.

- Thankful for allies in Congress w/courage to defend ordinary Americans against machinery of gov't. This week we'll see how many stand w/us.

- Repeal #NDAA indefinite detention without charge or trial. Your Representative in Congress will have the chance to do that this week.

- With regard to privacy scandals, look for Congress to back various "fixes" that do little more than give Members cover back home. That's their M.O.

- Let's not forget that this week the House will vote again on #NDAA, which allows gov't to detain YOU indefinitely without charge or trial.

- The pro-"spying on all Americans" propaganda machine is revving up in DC.

- The real criminals & traitors are those in government who knowingly assault the civil liberties secured by our Constitution.

- Dear Sen/Rep: You think your constituents are OK w/feds spying on them? In what year did you last talk to a regular person in your district?

- I'm working with other Reps on potential lawsuit against #FBI & #NSA regarding #PatriotAct #FISA #4thAmendment #SpeechAndDebate. Stay tuned.

https://twitter.com/repjustinamash

[cascadiance]

22. Al of those who want spy data being kept on all of us should make ALL of their personal data public!

... as a requirement before we'd consider passing such a bill. I'm guessing they don't want to make themselves in to victims like they want to make the rest of us in to!

[marions ghost]

24. He's actually, really 'on it' isn't he?

Rep Amash -- "potential lawsuits" sounds good to me---

Re: The Whistleblower Protection Act: They gutted it and stripped out all protections "for intelligence agency employees" :

In July 2009, Senator Akaka proposed a controversial amendment to S. 372 that further weakened the bill and contained several provisions that were insisted upon by the powerful federal agency managers lobby and the Obama administration. Despite campaign promises to support the stronger House bill, after the election, President Obama disappointed many when his administration actively supported the weaker Senate bill and Obama administration officials helped craft some of the controversial provisions contained in the Senate mark-up version of the bill in 2009. The Senate sponsors of S. 372 delayed presenting the controversial bill for full Senate approval until the latter stage of the lame-duck session of the 111th Congress. The Senate version of the WPEA contained only modest reforms of whistleblower rights and actually contained a few provisions that would have made it more difficult for federal employees to bring whistleblower claims. The Senate bill differed substantially from the House version and the delay tactics by the Senate sponsors of S. 372 ensured that the House was given only a take-it-or-leave-it option to take up the weak Senate bill. When the House finally considered the weaker Senate bill on the last day of the 111th Congress, the bill's sponsors needed a two-thirds vote to pass the bill on the House suspension calendar. Lacking the votes necessary to pass the weaker Senate bill, and to avoid objections raised by Republicans to the intelligence agency protections, the House sponsors of the Senate bill stripped out all protections for intelligence agency and FBI employees. The WPEA was killed in the Senate on December 22, 2010, when a senator placed an anonymous hold on the bill.
(Wiki)

[cascadiance]

20. Dick Durbin is already saying that this bill is dead...

... and won't get signed by Obama. Just wish we had more REAL Democrats on Capitol Hill to work for Americans and not pseudo American elites that would probably quickly move to the Caymans if it served to solidify their rich power in this world...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022993654

[Bluenorthwest]

23. Along with Difi, Durbin demanded they remove LGBT protections from the immigration bill

he is as much of an obstructionist as any Republican, his job seems to be to body block anything the right does not like.

[cascadiance]

25. And did they also support keeping in the bill the expansion of H-1B visa slave labor...

... to take away American's jobs too? Grumbling that much more as I've just become unemployed again with this kind of crap not helping us.

PO'd at Chuck Schumer who over and over again keeps siding with the corporatists in expanding H-1B quotas over and over again! Probably worked with Hillary Clinton as a NY senator who advocated the same thing too.

[Bluenorthwest]

21. Merkley and Wyden do us proud, this is why we elected them.

Thanks to all the rest of them as well, particularly Senator Franken who I am glad to see do the right thing.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

29. Excellent news!

Thank you, Senators, for stepping up on behalf of the American people.

[mike_c]

30. "sunlight is the best disinfectant...."

eom

[BillyRibs]

31. Another Finger in the Dyke!

Time to get rid of the tide causing it, Repeal the Home land security law. (Enabling act).

[xtraxritical]

38. So in another thread Al Franken is for it but now he's against it.

Go bye bye Al.

[marions ghost]

39. He seems to favor this bill

according to this article.

Conflicting info isn't always a change of mind.

[reusrename]

40. Doesn't go far enough.

Abolish the secret courts.

Period.

[marions ghost]

41. Declassifying the opinions

seems a good start, but you're right, it's not complete transparency.