Bios from Democracy Now.
Cass Sunstein, professor at the University of Chicago Law School and Department of Political Science. He has been described as “the nation’s most-cited legal scholar.” He is an adviser to Barack Obama. His latest book, co-authored with Richard Thaler, is Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness.
Glenn Greenwald, constitutional law attorney and political and legal blogger for Salon.com. He is the author of three books. His latest is Great American Hypocrites: Toppling the Big Myths of Republican Politics.
I had been following this issue that started when Sunstein, an Obama advisor, made some remarks at Netroots Nation.
Democrats want to preserve harmony by not investigating BushPoliticians, legal experts and progressive activists grappled with Republican abuses of power at the third annual netroots convention on Friday, debating how an Obama Administration might restore the rule of law. Cass Sunstein, an adviser to Barack Obama from the University of Chicago Law School, cautioned against prosecuting criminal conduct from the current Administration. Prosecuting government officials risks a "cycle" of criminalizing public service, he argued, and Democrats should avoid replicating retributive efforts like the impeachment of President Clinton--or even the "slight appearance" of it. Update: Sunstein emailed to emphasize that he also said and believes that "egregious crimes should not be ignored.
Today they were debating on Democracy Now with Amy Goodman.
Sunstein and Greenwald debateIt is very long, so just a couple of excerpts.
CASS SUNSTEIN: Yes, I think it’s—this is widely misunderstood. What the bill isn’t is basically a bill that—whose fundamental purpose is to give immunity. It’s a bill that creates a range of new safeguards to protect privacy, to ensure judicial supervision, to give a role for the inspector general. So it actually gives privacy and civil liberties a big boost over the previous arrangement.
It also does contain an immunity provision, which Senator Obama opposed. He voted for the substitute bill that didn’t have that. But he thought that this was a compromise which had safeguards for going forward, which made it worth supporting on balance, compared to the alternative, which was the status quo. So there’s been no fundamental switch for him. He’s basically concerned with protecting privacy. And this is not his favorite bill, but it’s a lot better than what the Bush administration had before, which was close to free reign.
I am no lawyer, but if Sunstein is right....then these 28 groups are all wrong. If he is right, why did they, why do they, so firmly oppose this bill.
The 28 groups who oppose the FISA billThe 28 groups which include the EFF and ACLU believe:
The bill would authorize massive warrantless surveillance.
The bill would require no individualized warrant even when an American’s communications clearly are of interest to the government.
The bill would curtail effective judicial review of surveillance.
The bill would grant retroactive immunity for wrongdoing.
The bill would not provide a reasonable sunset.
Greenwald speaks out strongly against the bill.
Number two, the idea that this bill is an improvement on civil liberties is equally insulting in terms of how false it is. This is a bill demanded by George Bush and Dick Cheney and opposed by civil libertarians across the board. ACLU is suing. The EFF is vigorously opposed. Russ Feingold and Chris Dodd, the civil libertarians in the Senate, are vehemently opposed to it; they say it’s an evisceration of the Fourth Amendment. The idea that George Bush and Dick Cheney would demand a bill that’s an improvement on civil liberties and judicial oversight is just absurd. This bill vests vast new categories of illegal and/or unconstitutional and warrantless surveillance powers in the President to spy on Americans’ communications without warrants. If you want to say that that’s necessary for the terrorist threat, one should say that. But to say that it’s an improvement on civil liberties is just propaganda.
AMY GOODMAN: Cass Sunstein?
CASS SUNSTEIN: Well, I appreciate the passion behind that statement. I don’t see it that way. And Morton Halperin, who’s been one of the most aggressive advocates of privacy protections in the last decades, is an enthusiastic supporter of this bill on exactly the ground that I gave.
I was surprised at this next statement of Sunstein, especially in light of the many groups who opposed it and have lawyers scrutinizing the bill.
So the view that this is an improvement over the Bush administration status quo, I believe, is widely accepted by those who have studied the bill with care.
Those who have studied the bill with care?
That implies that these 28 groups did not study it carefully.
American Civil Liberties Union
American Library Association
Arab-America Anti-Discrimination Committee
Association of Research Libraries
Bill of Rights Defense Committee
Center for American Progress Action Fund
Center for Democracy & Technology
Center for National Security Studies
Congressman Bob Barr, Liberty Strategies
Defending Dissent Foundation
Doug Bandow, Vice President for Policy, Citizen Outreach Project
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Fairfax County Privacy Council
Friends Committee on National Legislation
League of Women Voters of the United States
Liberty Coalition
MAS Freedom
OMB Watch
Open Society Policy Center
OpenTheGovernment.org
People For the American Way
Privacy Lives
Republican Liberty Caucus
The Multiracial Activist
United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society
U.S. Bill of Rights Foundation
Advisors and consultants and strategists know no more than these groups with their lawyers who study these issues. They would do well not to imply that care was not taken in the study of the issue.
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