Last Friday saw the House of Representatives' Committee on the Judiciary hold hearings into alleged abuses of power on the part of President Bush and his administration. Billed as "impeachment lite" by many in the Congress and media, the well-attended hearings nevertheless highlighted the strength of feeling surrounding the White House's disregard for so many of Common Cause's key issues.

Our Recapture the Flag campaign has focused on five key aspects, all of which were raised by committee members and witnesses in the context of the administration's alleged disregard for human rights and the rule of law. The process of `secret rendition' for terror suspects and their subsequent torture was condemned early on by committee chair John Conyers (D-MI). Secondly, the refusal of members of the executive branch, including former deputy chief of staff Karl Rove, to obey subpoenas was cited as a complete disregard for the rule of law - and echoed President Nixon's insistence that "when the president does it, that means it is not illegal".

The Senate is expected to vote today on HR 6304, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act (FISA) of 2008. The legislation has passed in the House, and is expected to move through the Senate and to President Bush.

Common Cause strongly opposes granting retroactive telecom immunity which this bill will provide. Several Senators including Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), Russ Feingold (D-Wis), and Benjamin Cardin (D-MD) have also been in strong opposition to the bill.

Cross-posted from The Hill Blog.

The rewrite of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 recently passed by the House (H.R. 6304) deals with some of the Bush Administration's more Constitutionally challenged activities. Recognizing the role of the Judicial Branch, for instance, is a good idea. The Administration's claim that Congress' authorization of force after 9/11 somehow implicitly allowed the White House to operate a wiretapping program in this country outside the court system has always stretched credulity.

Unfortunately, though, the Democrats caved to the White House by giving the telecom companies a get-out-of-jail-free card for handing over private information about American citizens to government agents. I think most Americans would consider having their phone conversations secretly recorded and handed over to the government an example of unreasonable search and seizure. If this legislation is signed into law, all of the Americans who sued these telecom companies in protest will never have their day in court. As there are no Senators willing to stop this bill, we expect that chamber to also pass it.

From a broader perspective, this bill amounts to a legislative affirmation of the Bush White House's systematic disregard for our civil rights and our Constitution. This Administration has illegally used warrentless wiretapping to spy on Americans.  It has suspended habeas corpus.  It has engaged in illegal torture.  Through signing statements, the President has declared publicly he will not comply with aspects of laws he finds disagreeable.

I think the Bush White House believes it is above the law. It has made a practice of ignoring the courts and Congress in the name of national security. It is time for Congress to start acting like a co-equal branch of government and start asserting its Constitutionally mandated role of overseeing the Executive Branch.

Common Cause continues its efforts to hold power accountable.

Abuse of Power: Forging the Path to Recovery

Common Cause hosted a distinguished panel on June 10 to discuss the widespread abuse of power engaged in by the current Administration. The Administration has disregarded the rule of law through over-broad assertions of executive power, abuse of signing statements, and policies that arguably flout the Constitution regarding interrogation, detention, and intelligence gathering. The Congress has repeatedly failed to perform its constitutionally mandated oversight duties in each of these areas.

The panelists were charged with examining these disturbing trends and with considering how best to restore the constitutional constraints that have served our country well since its inception.

It's Saturday morning in Minneapolis at the National Conference for  Media Reform. I am sitting in a large auditorium as our President, Bob Edgar moderates a panel about privacy in the digital age.

One of the key issues we are discussing is the domestic wiretapping program by the Bush administration. One of the things to know is that the government using private companies to spy on the public is nothing new. Lillie Coney of the Electronic Privacy Information Center pointed out that the government worked with Western Union to spy on telegraph communications as far back as the US Civil War.

Just because it has been done before, doesn't mean it's ok.

In today's world, so much more information is available to those who would keep tabs on us. Because of the internet, phones, credit cards, grocery store cards and other things we use every day, the government and corporations can amass information about our daily activities in ways they never before could.

This means it is all the more important today to fight for our right of privacy.

Common Cause will continue to fight against the abuse of power and violations of our rights as citizens.

While the Senate was willing to grant retroactive legal immunity to telecommunications companies that submitted to the White House's request for them to spy on Americans without a warrant, the House today voted to renew the surveillance bill without granting such legal immunity.More on the immunity debate below.

UPDATE: In a sad and unsurprising vote, the Senate passed the FISA renewal with retroactive legal immunity for the telecom companies. The battle moves to the House, where hopefully our elected officials will remember that they are there to uphold the rule of law and protect the process of justice, especially when it comes to determining whether telecommunications firms unlawfully allowed the government to spy on American citizens. - Josh Zaharoff

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Senate is now debating the FISA bill. On January 22, Common Cause did a letter with other groups to Senator Reid opposing immunity for telecommunications companies. Excerpt:

UPDATE:The FISA bill that did not contain retroactive immunity for the telecom companies failed in the Senate today, 60-34, and the rest of the debate and voting will take place on Monday.

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In a moment the Senate will take up the issue of FISA--I'm writing this with the hope that the debate takes more than a few minutes, and perhaps stretches into the next couple days.  The big question for me and for many of us is whether the bill will contain a provision granting blanket, retroactive immunity to telecom companies that allowed the government to spy on Americans without a warrant.

The issue hasn't changed over the past few months: this is a question of whether it's okay to break the law or not, and whether, if an individual or company appears to have broken the law and violated the Constitution, that person or company will be held accountable.  Granting retroactive legal immunity to the telecom industry before the Congress has had a chance to investigate their actions and before challenges to their actions in court have been concluded amounts to undermining the process of justice and rule of law in this country.

That's a big question.  Meanwhile, Credo Action (formerly Working Assets) has put together an action center that points a spotlight on the presidential candidates and the debate on FISA.  More below the fold.