Senator Dodd pens telecom immunity repeal

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/60589-senators-to-introduce-bill-repealing-telecom-immunity


Dodd pens telecom immunity repeal
By Eric Zimmermann - 09/28/09 04:01 PM ET



A handful of Democratic senators are promoting legislation to repeal immunity for telecommunications firms that cooperated with the Bush administration on a warantless wiretapping program.

Congress voted last year to provide "retroactive immunity" to any companies participating in the controversial program. But with a more sizable majority, some Democrats are pushing to repeal that.

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) will introduce the Retroactive Immunity Repeal Act, opening up some of the country's largest firms to legal liabilities. Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) have signed on as co-sponsors.

“I believe we best defend America when we also defend its founding principles,” Dodd said in a statement. “We make our nation safer when we eliminate the false choice between liberty and security. But by granting retroactive immunity to the telecommunications companies who may have participated in warrantless wiretapping of American citizens, the Congress violated the protection of our citizens' privacy and due-process rights, and we must not allow that to stand.”

Civil libertarians claim that telecom companies violated their customers' rights by sharing information without a government warrant. Immunity shields those companies from an onslaught of lawsuits.

"Granting retroactive immunity to companies that went along with the illegal warrantless wiretapping program was unjustified and undermined the rule of law," said Feingold, one of the Senate's fiercest opponents of Bush-era surveillance practices. “Congress should not have short-circuited the courts’ constitutional role in assessing the legality of the program."

Unlikely to pass without Obama on board, but still good.

Recommended.

...as progressives punish him for his connections to the banking industry.

I'm sure his GOP replacement would have filibustered the amendments to FISA had they been serving in 2007, just like Dodd did.

He is a good guy. Problems ..yes.


Even though they gave them (cc companies) too much time to enact them. I am getting notices from my cc companies now that they will not play dirty anymore. 2 week payment notices.. shifting billing cycles etc.

Payback is a ..well you know.

On edit: I bet there was a connection.


On second edit AT&T has been a real PIA here ever since they took over SBC.

They made promises they never kept... like fiber optic to everyone.

Retroactive immunity my ass.

Bring it on.