Arlen Specter: “I have the floor. I have not propounded the question yet. National security letters have been in existence for decades.…”

“I have the floor. I have not propounded the question yet. National security letters have been in existence for decades. While we take up the PATRIOT Act, we have used this occasion to add protections so that whereas today they are secret, we have explicitly provided the right to consult with a lawyer. I don't disagree there ought to be that right without providing it explicitly. Somebody ought to be able to go to a lawyer, but if they get a national security letter today, they are betwixt and between. Originally, this legislation had a requirement you had to tell the FBI who the lawyer was. The FBI wanted that provision because there are some lawyers who have been alleged to be involved in collusion with the terrorist organizations. As I said earlier, Senator Leahy objected to that and I agreed that you ought to be able to hire your own lawyer. If the FBI asks, okay, it is a fair request and you can tell them. Then we provided you can quash those national security letters if they are unreasonable. If you go to a judge and you say, this is unreasonable, now the standard of reasonableness is all over the law, what a reasonable man would do. Is that too high of a bar? There is judicial review. You come to the point of disclosure where you have the issue as to whether disclosure will impede the investigation. All through the law, there are limitations on disclosure where there is a legitimate law enforcement concern about not impeding an investigation.…”