No backdoor immunity

NO BACKDOOR IMMUNITY
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] The Senate Judiciary Committee must take a very critical look at a "compromise" to protect telecom companies that assisted the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping. The "compromise" on the table in the Judiciary Committee, sponsored by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) would allow the federal government to replace the telecom companies as defendants in those lawsuits in most cases. Under Specter's bill, the conditions for the federal government assuming the defendant's role in a lawsuit would be that the telecom service provider had a written request assuring it that the activity was lawful and approved by the president. However, the American Civil Liberties Union has raised a serious concern with Specter's plan: The possibility that the government, as defendant, might try to stymie the lawsuits by claiming "state secrets." That loophole should be the focal point of the committee's examination of Specter's bill, possibly as early as today. Americans deserve to know if their most fundamental rights were trampled in an overreaching program that knowingly bypassed the required court approval. And, if so, they deserve to know which companies may have participated in it. Those lawsuits are vital in the search for truth.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/12/06/ED4HTOQ69.DTL