While 16 Democrats in the Senate and 41 in the House caved in to George W. Bush and voted for the expansion of presidential powers through warrantless wiretapping, Wisconsin's entire delegation of congressional democrats held firm in rejecting this unconstitutional evisceration of the Fourth Amendment.
As described in this morning's New York Times, the law gives the "director of national intelligence and the attorney general authority to intercept — without warrant, court supervision or accountability — any telephone call or e-mail message that moves in, out of or through the United States as long as there is a 'reasonable belief' that one party is not in the United States."
Wisconsin's three Republicans in Congress all voted in lock step with the White House.
The law is set to expire in six months; maybe Republicans will grow a spine in a half year and stick up for the Constitution.
Senator Feingold led the way. Speaking from the Senate floor, Feingold blasted the bill:
But we cannot pass the Bond-McConnell proposal. This bill would go way too far. It would permit the government with no court oversight whatsoever to intercept communications of calls to and from the United States as long as it is directed at a person - any person, not a suspected terrorist, any person - reasonably believed to be outside the United States. That means giving free reign to the government to wiretap anyone including U.S. citizens who live overseas, service members such as those in Iraq, journalists reporting from overseas or even members of Congress who are overseas and call home to the U.S. and this is without any court oversight whatever. That is unacceptable. It goes far, far beyond the identified problem of foreign to foreign communications that we all agree on. And it goes far, far beyond the public descriptions of the president's warrantless wiretapping program.
Mr. President, a six-month sunset does not justify voting for this bad version of the bill. We can't just suspend the Constitution for six months. So, I strongly oppose the Bond bill and I urge my colleagues to oppose it.”
###