Lautenberg statement on wiretapping bill

by: Hopeful

Wed Jul 09, 2008 at 06:56:53 PM EDT

"Today I took a stand for protecting our nation and protecting our rights.

The truth is we can--we must--fight terrorism and, at the same time, safeguard the civil liberties that make our country great.

Yet the Bush Administration has too often brushed our civil liberties aside.  

For more than five years, this Administration secretly spied on Americans' personal information and listened in on private conversations without approval from Congress or the FISA Court that has overseen intelligence surveillance for three decades.

Sadly, this latest FISA bill simply gives George Bush and Dick Cheney too much latitude to continue these abuses.

Our state of New Jersey is no stranger to terrorism and I defer to no one when it comes to protecting our residents and preventing terrorism.

But it is a false and dangerous choice to suggest that walking away from the Constitution is necessary to protect our state.

In our efforts to protect America, we must not forget much of what we are protecting -- the civil liberties that help make our nation so great.

By granting retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies who handed over their customers' data as part of the warrantless wiretapping program, this bill essentially guarantees that no court will ever determine whether the program is illegal.

It also guarantees that consumers will never know the extent to which their privacy rights were violated.   And it guarantees that no one will be held accountable for steamrolling the Bill of Rights.

It is particularly disheartening that the immunity provision would put an end to the lawsuit brought by New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram for violations of New Jersey's consumer protection laws.  Conservatives often talk about "states' rights," but apparently forget that ideal when states seek to protect our civil liberties.

The theme of this Administration is "No Accountability."  This FISA bill continues that theme, and that is why I proudly voted against it."