Gov Pushes for Secret Review of New FISA Law

Less than an hour after President Bush signed the FISA Amendments Act, the ACLU filed a lawsuit challenging the new law. We also filed another legal motion with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), requesting that any review of the new law be open to the public to the extent possible, and that we are allowed to make arguments against it. Not asking for much, right?

A few weeks ago, the FISC ordered the government to respond to that motion, and late yesterday, the government did just that. It its response, the Bush administration asked that FISC not to accept any legal briefs from the ACLU or anyone else but the Justice Department, and that any review of the FISA law be kept secret. We can’t say we’re surprised by this.