Is This The Solution?
John Schmidt, former associate attorney general in the Clinton administration, and a supporter of President Bush’s NSA intercept program might have a solution to the ongoing mess in Washington.
Here’s part of the Chicago Tribune’s article where Schmidt explains his solution:
Schmidt argued persuasively in a December essay on our pages that since the FISA law was passed in 1978, every president has asserted that he “retained inherent power” to go beyond the terms of the law and the courts have consistently upheld that position.
So what Schmidt offers today, and this page strongly supports, is not designed to rein in unlawful activity by the administration. It is a means to balance lawful activity with the civil liberties this nation holds dear. Schmidt suggests empowering the FISA court to review periodically the broad parameters of the kind of surveillance plan now run by the NSA. He notes that this isn’t a new idea: Former Atty. Gen. Edward Levi recommended it more than 30 years ago.
A regular FISA court review of the eavesdropping program makes sense. At the moment, President Bush reauthorizes the program every 45 days. Presumably, the president is briefed on the nature and scope of the program, the results of its intercepts, and efforts to make sure that there’s no inappropriate snooping on American citizens. That briefing could be conducted before the FISA court.
It seems to me that this makes some sense for all parties involved. Congress is pressing for more oversight on the program to protect our civil liberties and the President isn’t willing to cede the fact that he’s got inherent constitutional powers to conduct warrantless wiretaps. This compromise would render the inherent powers conflict moot at the same time that Congress gets their solution to the oversight issue.
The only problem that might happen is with some of the judges on the FISA Court being opposed to the program. After all, the Washington Post quoted “two associates familiar with [Judge James Robertson's] decision said yesterday that Robertson privately expressed deep concern that the warrantless surveillance program authorized by the president in 2001 was legally questionable and may have tainted the FISA court’s work.” Shortly thereafter, he resigned from the FISA Court but kept working as a federal judge in another capacity.
I wish they’d figured something like this out long before the Senate Democrats, led by Ted Kennedy, Russ Feingold and Patrick Leahy started telling the entire world that the program existed and before AQ terrorists could adjust to this program.
I share Peter Hoekstra’s and Pat Roberts’ view that all this posturing has rendered this program useless by now.
Cross-post at LetFreedomRing