Brennan Center for Justice

(this post is published in full at Roll Call, and is excerpted below.)

Earlier this month, the Washington Post touted the Obama
administration's "increasing confiden[ce] that it has struck a balance
between protecting civil liberties, honoring international law and
safeguarding the country." The USA PATRIOT Act reauthorization bill
approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee last week provides ample
evidence that the civil liberties side of the scale is getting short
shrift.

It is troubling enough that the bill fails to add
meaningful safeguards to a set of powers granted - often over strenuous
Democratic opposition - during the Bush administration. These powers
enable the government to obtain vast amounts of private information
about Americans who have no ties to terrorism or espionage whatsoever.

But
even more disheartening is last week's revelation that the Obama
administration, while publicly claiming to be open to increased civil
liberties protections in the bill, had been lobbying Congress in secret
to remove them. Some of these proposed (and now rejected) protections
were identical to measures supported by then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.)
in 2005.

As if Obama's stealthy about-face didn't provide enough
cause for concern, Senate Democrats proved all too eager to follow his
lead, jettisoning without a second thought their erstwhile objections
to these overbroad authorities. Just three years ago, committee members
unanimously endorsed a provision to help prevent abuses of National
Security Letters - a tool that enables the FBI to collect private
records about Americans without a warrant. The very same provision was
able to garner only four votes this year.

Few observers had
anticipated this result. To the contrary, many had hoped that the need
to consider reauthorizing three expiring provisions of the PATRIOT Act
would lead to a thorough public debate over the full range of existing
surveillance powers. In the years since 9/11, these powers have been
adopted or modified piecemeal, usually hurriedly, often in response to
a crisis and frequently in secret. Congress could have taken this
opportunity to consider the big picture, to map out a responsible,
comprehensive policy that comports with our shared interests in liberty
and national security....

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