DODD: THE FISA BATTLE ISN'T OVER

Earlier, I mentioned-- in a lengthy post-- that Blue America is donating funds to some of the progressives who opposed Bush and his Republican and Blue Dog allies on FISA. Obviously none of this money is going to Barack Obama, the Democrat's presidential candidate who supported Chris Dodd's amendment stripping retroactive immunity for the telecoms out of the FISA bill but who then voted for the fatally flawed overall bill-- unlike Dodd, Feingold, Tester... or even Hillary. That doesn't mean he still isn't a billion times better than John McCain. But the Blue America vs Retroactive Immunity Fund isn't about that. It's about protecting the Constitution and the rule of law. Obama erred; he's a politician and I hope that isn't news to you. McCain, enthusiastically supporting both warrantless wiretaps and retroactive immunity-- while taking the biggest bribes from the Telecoms of anyone in government ($365,955 this year alone)-- didn't bother showing up to even vote yesterday.

Meanwhile, one of the senators we want to honor, Chris Dodd issued an encouraging statement this morning, promising to continue the fight he has so relentless led:

“With one stroke of his pen, the President has ensured that the truth behind his unprecedented domestic spying regime will never see the light of day. But the fight must go on. I will continue to stand up for the rule of law and the civil liberties of all Americans at every opportunity, and will strongly support efforts to challenge the constitutionality of this decision in the courts. I can only hope that the courts will be able to correct the mistake the Congress and President have made.”

I like his spirit. "The Courts," on the other hand... well, that concept gets me a little nervous. But the ACLU is ready for action. Today they filed a landmark lawsuit to stop the government from conducting surveillance under a new wiretapping law that gives the Bush Regime virtually unchecked power to intercept Americans’ international e-mails and telephone calls.

The case was filed on behalf of a broad coalition of attorneys and human rights, labor, legal and media organizations whose ability to perform their work-- which relies on confidential communications-- will be greatly compromised by the new law.

The FISA Amendments Act of 2008, passed by Congress on Wednesday and signed by President Bush today, not only legalizes the secret warrantless surveillance program the president approved in late 2001, it gives the government new spying powers, including the power to conduct dragnet surveillance of Americans’ international communications.

“Spying on Americans without warrants or judicial approval is an abuse of government power-- and that’s exactly what this law allows. The ACLU will not sit by and let this evisceration of the Fourth Amendment go unchallenged,” said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. “Electronic surveillance must be conducted in a constitutional manner that affords the greatest possible protection for individual privacy and free speech rights. The new wiretapping law fails to provide fundamental safeguards that the Constitution unambiguously requires.”

In today’s legal challenge, the ACLU argues that the new spying law violates Americans’ rights to free speech and privacy under the First and Fourth Amendments to the Constitution. The new law permits the government to conduct intrusive surveillance without ever telling a court who it intends to spy on, what phone lines and email addresses it intends to monitor, where its surveillance targets are located, why it’s conducting the surveillance or whether it suspects any party to the communication of wrongdoing.

...The ACLU’s legal challenge, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York today, seeks a court order declaring that the new law is unconstitutional and ordering its
immediate and permanent halt.