ALERT -- House FISA hearings moved up to TOMORROW MORNING!

Tell Key House Committees to Hold the Line -- No Telecom Immunity!

URGENT UPDATE: The House Judiciary and Intelligence committees have moved their markup hearings up to the early morning of Wednesday, October 10. Any effort to defend against telecom immunity in these crucial committee meetings needs to happen immediately -- call now!

On Tuesday, October 9, the House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers and Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes announced the RESTORE Act -- an attempt to restore civil liberties lost to the executive branch in August, when Congress passed the "Protect America Act." The Protect America Act was rushed legislation that gave the executive branch unprecedented power to spy on Americans, bypassing the checks and balances of judicial review that have protected citizens from warrantless wiretapping since the scandals of Watergate.

Tomorrow, members of the House Intelligence and House Judiciary Committee are planning to make final changes to the RESTORE Act before bringing it to a floor vote before the whole House. These committee meetings will be the perfect opportunity for someone to sneak retroactive immunity language into the bill, suddenly shielding telecommunication companies from legal scrutiny. Including immunity in the RESTORE Act could jeopardize EFF's case against AT&T -- one of the last, best hopes for judicial review of the wholesale surveillance of ordinary Americans.