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In Courtroom Showdown, Bush Demands Amnesty for Spying Telecoms
Democratic Underground Latest Breaking News —
... voted for the law in the Senate. On Tuesday, lawyers with the Electronic Frontier Foundation are set to urge the federal judge overseeing those lawsuits to reject immunity as unconstitutional. At stake, they say, is the very principle of the rule of law in America. "I think it does set a very frightening precedent that it's okay for people to break the law because they can just have Congress bail them out later," says EFF legal director Cindy Cohn. "It's very troubling." Read more: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/12/feds-eff-argui... The EFF is now challenging the ...
ThinkFast: December 2, 2008
Think Progress —
... The Bush administration will appear in court at 10 am PST today βto convince a federal judge to let stand a law granting retroactive legal immunity to the nation’s telecoms, which are accused of transmitting Americans’ private communications to the National Security Agency without warrants.β ...
The Daily Muck
TPMMuckraker —
... Trial opens at 10am today for the high-profile case that pits civil liberty groups against the Bush administration and telephone companies, who are being sued for illegally granting the government access to consumer records. Congress passed a bill in July that would give the businesses immunity, a move prosecutors say is unconstitutional. (Wired) ...
FISA: Judge Asks Feds Some Good Questions
Firedoglake —
... The Bush Administration is in Vaughn Walker's courtroom today, trying to convince him to just give the telecoms immunity with no further scrutiny. ...
Q and A
N/A —
... Good question: “Is there any precedent for this type of enactment that is analogous in all of these respects: retroactivity; immunity for constitutional violations; and delegation of broad discretion to the executive branch to determine whether to invoke the provision?,” the judge asked.“ ...
