Constitutional Law

A Sneak Peak at Amending FISA

Glenn Greenwald analyzes reports of an agreement regarding how Congress will proceed with votes to amend FISA on Monday.

The essence of the new agreement is that most of the [proposed amendments to FISA] will be subject to a simple up-or-down vote -- if they get 50 votes, then they pass -- while several of the amendments will require 60 votes to pass. . . .

There are certain amendments that are not going to get even 50 votes -- including the Dodd/Feingold amendment to strip telecom immunity out of the bill -- and, for that reason, [conservatives] were more than willing to agree to a 50-vote threshold, since they know those amendments won't pass even in a simple up-or-down vote.

But then, there are other amendments which might be able to get 50 votes, but cannot get 60 votes -- such as Feinstein's amendment to transfer the telecom cases to the FISA court and her other amendment providing that FISA is the "exclusive means" for eavesdropping -- and, thus, those are the amendments for which the [conservatives] insisted upon a 60-vote requirement.

Here is a highly technical summary of the rules under which debate will occur.

Senator Feingold, who is sponsoring a number of amendments, explained that issues beyond granting retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies are at play.

This ACSBlog post explores the various legislative approaches to amending FISA.

ACS has a host of background materials on the separation of powers, privacy, and surveillance.

• Read an article by Marty Lederman and David Cole on "The National Security Agency's Domestic Spying Program."
• Listen to Neil Kinkopf, Leslie Harris, David Kris, Robert Turner, and Mary DeRosa discuss "Domestic Surveillance and the Rule of Law."
• Read a transcript of a discussion with Michael Greenberger, Gary Hart, Morton Halperin, and Bruce Fein on "Warrantless Domestic Surveillance: Its Roots and Where We Go From Here."
• Watch Farhana Khera, Alasdair S. Roberts, Suzanne Spaulding, and Wyndee Parker discuss "Building Checks and Balances for National Security Policy: The Role of Congress."
• Watch Kate Martin, Milt Bearden, Deborah Pearlstein, and James Johnson discuss "The Challenges of Gathering Intelligence and Conducting Investigations."
• Listen to former Vice President Al Gore speak on "Restoring the Rule of Law."
• Listen to Senator Hillary Clinton speak about privacy.
• Watch a conversation with Gary Hart, Dawn Johnsen, Doug Kmiec, Harold Koh, Beth Nolan, and Ronald Weich on "Separation of Powers: Restoring the Balance Among the Branches."

Full post as published by ACS Blog on February 02, 2008 (boomark / email).