I thought it would be interesting to compare the draft platform with the language proposed by Get FISA Right. The platform on illegal wiretapping: We support constitutional protections and judicial oversight on any surveillance program involving Americans. We will review the current Administration’s warrantless wiretapping program. We reject illegal wire-tapping of American citizens.
vs. Get FISA Right's proposal: - Repeal or substantially amend the FISA Amendments Act, which threatens Fourth Amendment and other fundamental rights. Replace the FISA Amendments Act with a law that restores fundamental rights and holds all parties accountable who violate those rights.
- Conduct a full investigation of illegal government surveillance programs, make public the legal opinions that justified them, and hold accountable those who ordered illegal warrantless surveillance.
- Restore the rule of law and end unchecked unitary executive power by bringing to justice all corporate entities, government agencies, and persons who violated the Fourth Amendment and other fundamental rights.
The platform on civil liberties as a whole: We reject the use of national security letters to spy on citizens who are not suspected of a crime. We reject the tracking of citizens who do nothing more than protest a misguided war. We reject torture. We reject sweeping claims of “inherent” presidential power. We will revisit the Patriot Act and overturn unconstitutional executive decisions issued during the past eight years. We will not use signing statements to nullify or undermine duly enacted law. And we will ensure that law-abiding Americans of any origin, including Arab-Americans and Muslim-Americans, do not become the scapegoats of national security fears.
We will not ship away prisoners in the dead of night to be tortured in far-off countries, or detain without trial or charge prisoners who can and should be brought to justice for their crimes, or maintain a network of secret prisons to jail people beyond the reach of the law. We will respect the time-honored principle of habeas corpus, the seven century-old right of individuals to challenge the terms of their own detention that was recently reaffirmed by our Supreme Court. We will close the detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, the location of so many of the worst constitutional abuses in recent years.
In comparision, Get FISA Right proposed: - Stop government practices that violate the constitutionally guaranteed right to free speech, privacy, and due process, including warrantless surveillance on Americans, secret evidence in military courts, torture, illegal imprisonment of U.S. citizens and others, and arbitrary racial and religious profiling.
- Repeal or substantially amend laws that violate constitutionally guaranteed rights, including the Patriot Act, the FISA Amendments law, the Military Commissions Act, related executive orders, and executive signing statements. Replace these with laws that reaffirm our fundamental rights and hold accountable all parties who violate those rights.
- Restore constitutional rights that the Bush administration has eroded through its lawless theory of unchecked executive power, including dissent, free speech, assembly, habeas corpus, privacy, due process of law, and equal protection.
My comments: I'm deeply pleased to see that the draft promises to "revisit the Patriot Act", and equally disappointed to see that there is no such promise regarding either the FISA Amendments Act or the Military Commissions Act. Can our democracy really afford to leave these flawed laws on the books in their current format? Although the draft language on wiretapping says all the right things I'm not satisfied by it. Maybe that's because my Democratic Senator, who keeps voting the wrong way on FISA, claims that under the FISA Amendments Act wiretapping is under judicial oversight and in keeping with the Constitution. There's also of course no mention of the issue that perturbed the Democratic base so much - telecom immunity. A review of what took place is critical, but what happens then? Will the government bureaucrats and political appointees who ordered datamining programs get away with it? Nor is there any suggestion that we might hold anyone accountable for the torture, the illegal detentions and all the other violations of Constitutional rights. It's good news that we plan to stop engaging in these activities, but letting those who created and carried out these policies get away with it is unacceptable. |
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