FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Media@dcaclu.org
WASHINGTON - Today the American Civil Liberties Union urged the House of
Representatives to reject attempts to erode Fourth Amendment protections under
the guise of "updating" the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), as the
House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security met to
consider several proposals that would condone President Bush’s warrantless
wiretapping program.
"The Republican leadership is recklessly pushing legislation based on an
election strategy, with no regard for how these bills undermine our fundamental
freedoms," said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington
Legislative Office. "FISA doesn’t need to be updated. We hope that lawmakers
will act to uphold the Constitution and Bill of Rights."
The ACLU noted FISA has already undergone extensive "updating." When the
Patriot Act was originally passed and then reauthorized, Congress amended FISA
extensively, much to the detriment of the law’s original civil liberties
protections, although the requirement of warrants for wiretaps was left intact.
However, despite the expanded powers at his disposal, inh 2001 President Bush
authorized the National Security Agency to secretly wiretap Americans without a
court order, in violation of FISA and the Fourth Amendment.
The White House has since stonewalled congressional attempts to investigate
the administration’s circumvention of FISA. President Bush personally blocked an
investigation by the Justice Department regarding the NSA’s warrantless
wiretapping program. Vice President Cheney personally blocked telecommunications
companies from testifying before Congress. And recently, a federal court found
the warrantless wiretapping program illegal and unconstitutional. Several bills
have been introduced that would reward the government’s illegal actions by
changing the law to legitimize the programs.
The ACLU has raised strong objections to S. 2453, the National Security
Surveillance Act. Sponsored by Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) and drafted in close
consultation with the White House, the Cheney-Specter bill would make complying
with FISA and the Fourth Amendment optional for the president. The bill would
also vastly expand the government’s ability to conduct warrantless surveillance
and physical searches of Americans’ homes and businesses without judicial check.
Representatives Heather Wilson (R-NM), Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and Pete
Hoekstra (R-MI) have introduced a similar bill, HR 5825, in the House. That
proposal would give the president unprecedented power to conduct warrantless
spying and physical searches of Americans on American soil for months at a time,
without any judicial check or finding that an American is conspiring with al
Qaeda. The bill also authorizes the warrantless surveillance program. The ACLU
noted the bill allows any act of terrorism to trigger the suspension of the
court order requirements of FISA.
"Congress must not reward the president’s disregard for the rule of law with
legislation granting amnesty to his illegal actions," said Lisa Graves, ACLU
Senior Counsel for Legislative Strategy. "FISA was enacted to ensure that no
president could unilaterally decide who to secretly and indefinitely wiretap
under the guise of national security. These bills would allow terrorism to be
used as a pretext for undermining our basic Fourth Amendment rights. Congress
should not pass the bills which give the president a blank check to violate the
rights of innocent Americans."
For more on the ACLU’s concerns with the NSA warrantless
surveillance program, go to: www.aclu.org/nsaspying
