Telecom immunity about much more
I thank Melissa Bean for having the integrity to say straight-out that she was in favor of giving telecoms immunity and clearly stating the reasons why.
That said, while I've always been a supporter, I believe her arguments in this case are fatally flawed. Here's why.
First, nobody was proposing penalties of any kind against the telecoms.
The only thing under discussion here was to either do nothing or strip the normal legal rights of ordinary citizens to seek legal redress if their Constitutional rights have been violated.
The telecoms have nothing to fear unless their actions broke the law. Their aggressive push for immunity was a clear signal they know that now and they knew it then.
Bean talks about the bad precedent of punishing corporations for playing ball with the government. But rewarding a corporation for breaking the law would set the worst precedent of all.
"When minutes make the difference" is an emotional, bogus argument. The fact is, FISA has never meaningfully delayed any legitimate investigation or surveillance in 30 years. It has issued warrants cooperatively and quickly.
The administration's repeated insistence on end-running the FISA court has been conclusively proven to have nothing to do with our safety and everything to do with its unquenchable drive for an imperial executive.
Finally, this case was desperately important as one of the few remaining windows into the most lawless presidency in American history.
Again and again, this administration shamelessly defied all limits on its power, including legitimate subpoenas issued by Congress.
Its officials destroy evidence, hold back documents they're required to produce, and refuse to testify.
As a result, potential lawsuits in this case may have been the only way left for Americans to get the truth about what our own leaders have been doing to us for the past seven years.
The dry-sounding term "retroactive telecom immunity" stands for an idea that is not dull or abstract at all.
It's nothing less than stripping our legal rights a second time so that our runaway president can get away with stripping them the first time, using giant corporations as his co-conspirators, and stiff-arming us yet again from getting at the truth.
This president put his hand on the Bible and pledged to defend the Constitution. He has proven he's not up to keeping that promise.
Anthony J. Sterbenc
Barrington