Bipartisan Group of Senators Introduce Bill to Declassify FISA Court Opinions

[kpete]

Bipartisan Group of Senators Introduce Bill to Declassify FISA Court Opinions

Senators: End Secret Law

Bipartisan Group of Senators Introduce Bill to Declassify FISA Court Opinions


June 11, 2013

Washington, DC - Today, Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley and Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), accompanied by Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Dean Heller (R-NV), Mark Begich (D-AK), Al Franken (D-MN), Jon Tester (D-MT), and Ron Wyden (D-OR), introduced a bill that would put an end to the “secret law” governing controversial government surveillance programs. This bill would require the Attorney General to declassify significant Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) opinions, allowing Americans to know how broad of a legal authority the government is claiming to spy on Americans under the PATRIOT Act and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

“Americans deserve to know how much information about their private communications the government believes it’s allowed to take under the law,” Merkley said. “There is plenty of room to have this debate without compromising our surveillance sources or methods or tipping our hand to our enemies. We can’t have a serious debate about how much surveillance of Americans’ communications should be permitted without ending secret law.”

“This bipartisan amendment establishes a cautious and reasonable process for declassification consistent with the rule of law,” Lee said. “It will help ensure that the government makes sensitive decisions related to surveillance by applying legal standards that are known to the public. Particularly where our civil liberties are at stake, we must demand no less of our government.”

"For years, I have pressed for information about the business records program authorized by the PATRIOT Act to be declassified,” Leahy said. “I am proud to join in this bipartisan legislative effort to increase openness and transparency so that we can shed further light on the business records program authorized by this law

http://www.merkley.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/?id=5D5997D9-4BA1-46C3-BA86-D208EC82A31E

[Drale]

1. Um maybe a Bipartisan Bill to repeal the Patriot Act? /nt

[premium]

3. Yeah, that too. nt.

[premium]

2. Wow, Dean Heller R-NV.

That's my Senator, good for him, now, why the fuck isn't my other Senator, Harry Reid D-NV part of this?

[KittyWampus]

7. I'd rather Reid not sponsor it cause he'd automatically set the wingnuts into a frenzy against it.

[premium]

9. I didn't think about that, good call. nt.

[JoeyT]

12. Could play it the other way too.

Get Obama to hint that he doesn't really want it. They'll slit their wrists to get blood for ink if that's what it takes. :p

[Poll_Blind]

4. BOTH senators from Oregon. Ya gotta love it. AND we have DeFazio in the House.

PB

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

5. It would, at least, be a small beginning in shining the light on our secret state.

[msanthrope]

6. Sounds good. Bring it for a vote. nt

[kentuck]

8. Sounds good!

I could support that. But I bet a lot of people will not?

[Laelth]

10. Good. Worth a shot.

I don't think it will pass. See here:

When the Patriot Act, which authorized this type of surveillance, was up for reauthorization in 2006, 10 senators voted against it. This past December, an amendment that required the NSA to reveal the number of Americans surveilled was shot down by a 43 to 52 vote. Another amendment that would have applied more transparency to the program failed 37 to 54.

In 2009, meanwhile, Feingold and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) introduced an amendment during the markup of the Patriot Act reauthorization that would have revised Section 215 of the law so that an "individual’s sensitive personal records can only be issued where there is at least some tangential connection to terrorism." That amendment was rejected as well.

On Thursday morning, Durbin was in a told-you-so type of mood. He said the breadth and depth of the NSA's surveillance that had been revealed by The Guardian was legal, and while the Senate could change the law, "it's not going to happen."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/06/verizon-phone-records-nsa_n_3397058.html

Our government has shown no real desire for increased transparency.

-Laelth

[Solly Mack]

11. K&R