Real Reform for the PATRIOT Act?

George W. Bush may have left D.C., but the vast surveillance machine he spent eight years building via the PATRIOT Act hums merrily along. Whether or not that continues could well be determined today, as the Senate Judiciary Committee meets to mark up legislation renewing a series of PATRIOT Act powers due to expire at the end of the year. Barack Obama's Justice Department has said it's open to "modifications" of the expiring powers -- but some Democratic legislators see an opportunity to revisit and revise the whole architecture of post-9/11 spying law. If history is any guide, press attention will focus overwhelmingly on a proposal to repeal the controversial immunity Congress retroactively granted to telecoms that participated in the National Security Agency's extralegal program of warrantless wiretaps. Far more consequential for the privacy rights of Americans, however, are two surveillance powers that would finally be subject to reasonable limits by the ambitious JUSTICE Act, sponsored by Sen. Russ Feingold, a Democrat from Wisconsin: National Security Letters and the sweeping wiretap authority granted by the FISA Amendments Act. Today's markup will focus on a far more modest renewal and reform bill sponsored by Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont and the commission's chair, but civil libertarians are hoping elements of Feingold's more sweeping effort will make it into the text ultimately sent to the full Senate. Of all the vital privacy safeguards Feingold has proposed, the provisions fixing NSLs and the FISA amendments are probably the most important...read more