Re: BEST LAW MONAY CAN BUY -- Senate votes Telecom immunity

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

________________________________________
From: Michael Froomkin - U.Miami School of Law [froomkin () law miami edu]
Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 9:48 PM
To: David Farber
Cc: ip
Subject: Re: [IP] Re:   BEST LAW MONAY CAN BUY --  Senate votes Telecom immunity

[for IP, if you wish]

As important as the cutting off of the telco civil liability are these
other two aspects of the awful Senate bill

1) By closing down the civil suits, we'll never find out via discovery who
in the administration made the (undoubtedly knowing) illegal requests, and
how they persuaded these very well lawyered companies who were very
familiar with their legal duties after 20+ years of experience dealing
with such requests to ignore the law they knew so well.  The possibility
of threats to their government contracts (very illegal acts by government
officials) cannot be completely discounted.

2) The constraints on the administration going forward are much weaker
than the ones they ignored.  And by removing the "exclusivity" clause
currently in FISA, the Senate invites the White House to argue that it can
ignore the parts of the bill it doesn't like.  And we know that this white
house likes to do that (see "signing statements").

This bill isn't law yet, and there is talk of a genuine filibuster later
on, but even so it is hard for me to understand how anyone who respects
the rule of law could vote for this.  It is genuinely appalling to me.

On Tue, 12 Feb 2008, David Farber wrote:

> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Randall Webmail <rvh40 () insightbb com>
> Date: February 12, 2008 8:51:12 PM EST
> To: dave () farber net
> Subject: Re: [IP] BEST LAW MONAY CAN BUY --  Senate votes Telecom immunity
>
> While GWB could (and would be expected to) use his pardon power to make any
> criminal prosecutions go away - the Senate just gave AT&T a free pass for
> civil liability as well.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
> Date: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 20:34
> Subject: [IP] BEST LAW MONAY CAN BUY --  Senate votes Telecom immunity
> To: ip <ip () v2 listbox com>
>
> > Begin forwarded message:
> >
> > From: Jonathan Ezor <jezor () tourolaw edu>
> > Date: February 12, 2008 4:54:16 PM EST
> > To: dave () farber net
> > Subject: RE: [IP] BEST LAW MONAY CAN BUY --  Senate votes
> > Telecom
> > immunity
> >
> > What an incredible disgrace.  I am appalled that
> > particularly the
> > Democratic
> > majority in the Senate is giving a pass to potential illegal
> > conduct
> > by the
> > telecom companies, and therefore implicitly endorsing the
> > many
> > breaches of
> > the Constitution and other laws by the Bush Administration in
> > the
> > alleged
> > name of "homeland security."  While I would not be
> > surprised to see
> > President
> > Bush use his pardon power to undo any resulting convictions,
> > to
> > retroactively
> > immunize these companies from even the potential for prosecution
> > is
> > not only
> > damaging to the rule of law, but makes it less likely that the
> > Americanpeople will ever be able to truly find out how many of
> > our civil
> > liberties
> > have been trampled upon.  {Jonathan}
> >
> >
> > -------------------
> > Prof. Jonathan I. Ezor
> > Assistant Professor of Law and Technology
> > Director, Institute for Business, Law and Technology (IBLT)
> > Touro Law Center
> > 225 Eastview Drive, Central Islip, NY  11722
> > Direct: 631-761-7119  Fax: 516-977-3001
> > e-mail: jezor () tourolaw edu
> >
> >
> >
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--
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A. Michael Froomkin   |    Professor of Law    |   froomkin () law tm
U. Miami School of Law, P.O. Box 248087, Coral Gables, FL 33124 USA
+1 (305) 284-4285  |  +1 (305) 284-6506 (fax)  |  http://www.law.tm
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