Democrats again caving to Republicans on PATRIOT Act

Disappointing? Very. Surprising? Not at all. Once again, Democrats are keeling over to Republicans like good little subservient puppies in the face of reauthorizing the horrendous (and, as everyone knows, ILLEGAL) PATRIOT Act. Fourth Amendment? Bah, who cares. Old texts aren’t to be followed, anyway, are they?

While some lawmakers, like Sens. Russ Feingold and Dick Durbin, have insisted that Congress must amend the law to rein in the FBI's powers to snoop into innocent private activities, other Democratic lawmakers, such as Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Patrick Leahy, have resisted significant reforms.

Gee, I wonder which side will win?

To address these problems, in mid-September, Feingold and Durbin, both of whom have long expressed concerns about the Patriot Act, introduced the JUSTICE Act (Judiciously Using Surveillance Tools In Counterterrorism Efforts), which would renew section 215 and the roving wiretap provisions, but would require the government to provide more justification for using them, and to specify more clearly the targets of their investigation.

The bill would also rein in the FBI's authority to issue National Security Letters by requiring the government to specify what it's looking for and how the information is relevant to an ongoing national security investigation. Meanwhile, it would repeal the part of the FISA Amendments Act that immunized telecommunications companies such as AT&T that assisted the government in its warrantless wiretapping program.

But a week later, to the dismay of many civil libertarians, Sen. Leahy introduced the USA Patriot and Sunset Extension Act. Cosponsored by Sens. Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.) and Ted Kaufman (D-Del.), it would extend the expiring provisions with only minor modifications, and would leave the "lone wolf" and "roving wiretap" provisions intact. It also would not include any reforms to the FISA Amendments Act.

By the time of the Senate markup session last week, Sen. Leahy, the Judiciary Committee Chairman, had produced a substitute version of his bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who chairs the Intelligence subcommittee. This bill became the basis for the markup, effectively destroying the chances for adoption of the JUSTICE bill, although pieces of it could still be introduced as amendments.

We all know that Rethuglicans couldn’t give less of a shit about civil liberties, so if the Democrats won’t grow a goddamned backbone in due time, no-one will be there to fight for the Bill of Rights. For possessing a “supermajority“, there’s decidedly nothing that’s super or great about the Democrats these days.

(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)
Technorati tags: PATRIOT Act · Democrats · Republicans · Bill of Rights · Fourth Amendment