[tlug] Immunity for Illegal Net Spying by US government - Issue is back..

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

FWIW Senator Feinstein says:

    The Intelligence Committee's report on the bill includes declassified
    text stating that the Executive branch provided letters to electronic
    communication service providers at regular intervals. These letters
    all directed or requested assistance and noted that the assistance was
    authorized by the President and was legal. The Committee's report can
    be found at http://intelligence.senate.gov/071025/report.pdf.

    I introduced an amendment on the Senate floor that would limit this
    grant of immunity. Under my amendment, cases against the
    telecommunications companies would go to the FISA Court for judicial
    review. The Court would only provide immunity if it finds that the
    alleged assistance was not provided, that assistance met legal
    requirements, or that a company had a good faith, reasonable belief
    that assistance was legal.

    I believe that this approach strikes the correct balance: it
    maintains court review and a judicial determination of whether
    companies provided assistance that they should have known violated the
    law.

I think it unlikely that we'll be able to do much better than that,
unfortunately.