Today in Constitution-Shredding

The long, drawn-out search for a fig leaf behind which the House Democrats can capitulate on FISA appears to have arrived as Democrats back a "compromise" by which telecom firms that illegally assisted the Bush administration's surveillance efforts can be sued with the proviso that they get off scot-free if they can produce evidence that the Bush administration promised them (cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye) that their illegal request was, in fact, legal. Since everyone already knows this happened, the companies all get off scot-free. See Tim Lee, Glenn Greenwald, and Brian Beutler for more. Who knows where this precedent of retroactively immunizing illegal conduct will lead us.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2008/06/today-in-constitution-shredding/48833/