Arlen Specter: “To repeat, the bill I am introducing does not touch that point. The bill I am introducing leaves the status quo on that…”

“To repeat, the bill I am introducing does not touch that point. The bill I am introducing leaves the status quo on that point, and that is where some contend that it is illegal to have a wiretap where the call originates outside the United States and comes inside. The contention is made that it's governed by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and is, therefore, illegal. The President has a different argument. He is asserting article II power as Commander in Chief, and he says that his article II power, constitutional power, supersedes or trumps a statute. Whether he is right or wrong depends upon a judicial interpretation. Only the court can weigh, as the existing law is in this area, whether the importance of national security outweighs the invasion of privacy, and that determination is reserved for the Federal courts. We are now having that determination in the Detroit case, ACLU v. NSA, where the district judge says it is unconstitutional and the Sixth Circuit now has taken the case. They have issued a stay, in effect, but they will take up the case on the merits. Once the litigation is this far advanced, we are not now in the situation we were in last December when the Judiciary Committee, as the Senator from California knows, had four hearings and I had a bill to submit to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. That is bypassed now. Events have overtaken it. This will provide for judicial review.…”