Now that the U.S. House has failed to rein in the Bush administration’s warrantless eavesdropping, it’s up to the Senate to move aggressively to instigate controls. Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter appears to be on the right track, but he needs support from concerned citizens if the administration is to give ground.
Specter, who believes the surveillance program is illegal, said last week he is making another attempt to force the Bush administration to answer lawmakers’ questions by introducing legislation to block funding for the program. The legislation is meant to provide an opportunity for further hearings. “Institutionally, the presidency is walking all over Congress at the moment,” Specter, R-Pa., told his committee. “If we are to maintain our institutional prerogative, that may be the only way we can do it.”
The program authorized by President Bush allows the National Security Agency to intercept telephone and e-mail communications between people inside the U.S. and suspected members of terrorist groups overseas without obtaining court orders. Federal law requires the government to obtain a warrant before conducting surveillance of people in this country. It even gives federal agents leeway in emergency situations, allowing warrants to be obtained up to 72 hours after the fact.
The president believes he has the authority as commander in chief to authorize surveillance without judicial approval. But no president is above the law, and Congress should not condone these taps without judicial oversight.
Last week, the House blocked efforts to expand oversight of the program. A bipartisan amendment to the Intelligence Authorization Act of 2007 requiring all domestic surveillance of U.S. residents to comply with federal law was scrapped, along with a proposal that would have clarified that Congress did not intend to authorize domestic surveillance in 2001, as Bush has claimed.
Last month, it was revealed there might be more warrantless surveillance underway than Bush has let on. Documents in a lawsuit brought by a San Francisco-based Internet privacy group, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, contend that AT&T helped the NSA listen in on communications on its network.
Specter has tried for months to coax information from the administration, but officials have shared little. We applaud Specter for his efforts to protect civil liberties and urge him to press forward.
