American Civil Liberties Union

In case you missed it, the New York Times had a great editorial yesterday about the new FBI guidelines that will be implemented on December 1^st (you know, the ones we really, really don't like). Here's a snippet:

These changes are a chilling invitation for the government to spy on law-abiding Americans based on their ethnic background or political activity.

Mr. Mukasey has promised that investigations conducted under the new rules will be consistent with the Constitution. Clearly, the Bush administration cannot be trusted to find the right balance between law enforcement and civil liberties. Even before this administration the F.B.I. had its own long history of abusing its powers to spy on civil rights groups and antiwar activists.

We couldn't have said it better ourselves. There's really nothing to add to it. Think of this as merely an FYI blog. Have a nice day.

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties had a markup today (markup? What's that?) on a bill very near and dear to our hearts. The State Secrets Protection Act would help to limit the executive branch's claims of state secrets. The bill passed the subcommittee today by a vote of 6-3. Next step, full committee markup. Cross your fingers that Congress gets this thing done.

Well, we knew they were coming and we knew they'd be bad but we just didn't know how specifically and constitutionally repulsive they'd be. That all changed today. I'm talking about the new FBI guidelines. Yes. Those.

Today a report dropped from the Department of Justice Inspector General's office on the conduct of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and some classified information. The report, it looks like, was leaked to the press yesterday in an effort to soften up the ground for our old buddy Gonzales by his lawyer George Terwilliger. The Post's headline , in part, reads: "No Evidence of Data Breach; Criminal Sanctions Unlikely Against Gonzales." Way to control the story guys. (Interesting sidenote: Gonzales' attorney is George Terwilliger, a former Goerge H. W. Bush Justice Department guy. Oh, also? He debated my boss, ACLU Washington Legislative Office Director Caroline Fredrickson, on the merits of the FISA Amendments Act on the Newshour this past June 20th — the day the House passed the bill. From what I remember, he was very smart and, in my opinion, very wrong in his defense of the bill and the immunity within. Caroline schooled him!)