Tuesday, 02.12.08
Ma Bell, scot-free
Flickr user Gaetan Lee
Go Dodd
17 October 2007
Matthew Yglesias can't believe Congress is even authorized to grant "retroactive immunity."
Problem for Clinton?
12 February 2008
Marc Ambinder considers whether Clinton's non-vote will hurt her.
Sunshine is the best disinfectant, and the US senate inflicted one gnarly, purulent wound on American civil liberties today. The vote does more than shield companies from having to pay damages for customers' claims. It ensures that no one need ever know whether those claims are valid in the first place. If the companies can defend their actions, then they should do so. Now, in the absence of legal compulsion to explain themselves, they will almost certainly feel no moral compulsion either.
The bill will proceed, immunity intact. Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) has threatened a filibuster. John McCain voted for immunity, Barack Obama voted against it, and Hillary Clinton didn't vote at all. Civil libertarians will not forget.
Nuclear snooze-buttonDahlia Lithwick urged lawmakers to quit imagining a "terrorist alarm clock" that never really exists. Telecom companies have sought immunity, on the basis of their belief that for five years (!) their cooperation was averting an imminent terrorist threat. |
From the floorSen. Chris Dodd got little respect on the campaign trail, but he could make it up with props from civil libertarians for this speech. |
Breaking the law by making itA law professors asks whether granting retroactive immunity would itself be unconstitutional. |
