Congress Chips Away at 4th Amendment

The U.S. House of Representatives has again approved legislation to continue the controversial surveillance program at the U.S. National Security Agency with limited court oversight. At the same time, this legislation will likely end lawsuits against telecommunications carriers that participated in the program. The House voted 293 to 129 to approve a bill that was a compromise between Democrats and Bush.

The bill extends NSA surveillance of phone calls and email messages going in and out of the U.S. The U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court also will review Bush administration requests for wide-ranging surveillance powers. The bill, called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendments Act, allows the NSA to receive blanket surveillance orders covering multiple suspects of terrorism and other crimes.

The Bush administration began the NSA surveillance program after 9/11 but the existed for about four years before news reports revealed its existence.

105 Democrats agreed with Bush, who voted with his position, while 128 voted against it.

The NSA program, in my view, violates the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures.

The surveillance of Americans is increased but no one has been able to demonstrate the connection between provisions of the bill and the ability to nab terrorists.

There are 47 outstanding lawsuits related to the surveillance program and 35 lawsuits with telecoms as defendants, including AT&T, Verizon Communications and Sprint Nextel, stated Kevin Bankston, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.