DODD PROPOSES REPEAL OF TELCO IMMUNITY IN SURVEILLANCE

摘要

A bill to repeal immunity for telecom carriers in electronic surveillance cases was introduced by Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn. But House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said, "I don't think revisiting that issue is really going to get anyplace." The ACLU and Electronic Frontier Foundation, longtime opponents of the retroactive immunity provision that Congress passed last year, welcomed the bill. "It is a great idea," said Michael Macleod-Ball, acting director of the ACLU's Washington Legislative Office. "The original grant of immunity was a mistake, and deprived Americans of their day in court," he said. "We urge Congress to repeal" the immunity provisions, included in legislation passed last year reauthorizing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. nnThe repeal bill was co-sponsored by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Sens. Russ Feingold, D- Wis., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore. Dodd said Congress violated citizens' right to due process in granting immunity to carriers last year. Feingold, a longtime opponent of the immunity provision, introduced two weeks ago a Patriot Act reauthorization that would repeal the provision. Cato Institute fellow Julian Sanchez said the Dodd bill poses an "ominous development" because it suggests a consensus among Senate Democrats to concentrate on the immunity issue "at the expense of the more important safeguards on future surveillance."