Or, at least, the Constitution. He’s pushing a bill through the Senate that explicitly allows the Executive branch to undergo warrantless wiretapping with no judicial review, and also transfers the existing suits to secret courts (i.e., not the Federal bench, where they are now).
First, it requires (if the Attorney General requests it, which he will) that all pending cases challenging the legality of the NSA program (which includes the EFF and ACLU cases) be transferred to the secret FISA court. Thus, the insufficiently deferential federal judges would have these cases taken away from them. Second, it would make judicial review of the administration’s behavior virtually impossible, as it specifically prohibits (Sec. 702(b)(2)) the FISA court from “requir(ing) the disclosure of national security information . . . without the approval of the Director of National Intelligence of the Attorney General.” That all but prevents any discovery in these lawsuits. Third, it quite oddly authorizes (Sec. 702(b)(6)) the FISA court to “dismiss a challenge to the legality of an electronic surveillance program for any reason” (emphasis added). Arguably, that provision broadens the authority of the court to dismiss any such lawsuit for the most discretionary of reasons, even beyond the already wide parameters of the “state secrets” doctrine.
There’s more:
The Specter bill will gut FISA, a law that whose constitutionality or usefulness has never been challenged in over thirty years since its passage, by allowing less stringent legislation to apply to domestic surveillance.
The Specter bill will prevent meaningful review by the judiciary from taking place, including allowing the Attorney General to move all pending cases challenging the legality of Bush’s domestic spying program into secret courts.
The Specter bill allows FISA courts to throw out challenges to the legality of the domestic surveillance program for any reason. Americans can’t be expected to cede surveillance powers to the president without adequate congressional and judicial oversight.
This is a very, very, very bad idea. We agree with Atrios that this is the greatest threat to our country today. We do not exaggerate; separation of powers and judicial oversight are cornerstones of our government, and gutting those provisions to create an imperial executive will have very long-lasting and negative consequences.
Call your senator. The link above has a list; Texas’ John Cornyn is a member of the committee in question. If you call 888-355-3588, the Capitol switchboard will transfer you to any Congressional office. Make the call, to Cornyn and others. This bill must be stopped.