Russ Feingold: “I strongly support Senator Dodd's amendment to strike the immunity provision from this bill. Congress should not be…”

“I strongly support Senator Dodd's amendment to strike the immunity provision from this bill. Congress should not be giving automatic retroactive immunity to companies that allegedly cooperated with the President's illegal NSA wiretapping program. This provision of the bill is both unnecessary and unjustified, and it will undermine the rule of law. Retroactive immunity is unnecessary because current law already provides immunity from lawsuits for companies that cooperate with the Government's request for assistance, as long as they receive either a court order or a certification from the Attorney General that no court order is needed and the request meets all statutory requirements. But if requests are not properly documented, FISA instructs the telephone companies to refuse the Government's request and subjects them to liability if they instead decide to cooperate. This framework, which has been in place for 30 years, protects companies that act at the request of the Government, while also protecting the privacy of Americans' communications.”