The [tag]Senate Judiciary Committee[/tag], in its latest hearing on the Bush White House’s warrantless-search program, heard from five former [tag]FISA[/tag] court judges yesterday, each of whom urged lawmakers to enforce the law and allow judicial oversight.
In a rare glimpse into the inner workings of the secretive court, known as the [tag]Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court[/tag], several former judges who served on the panel also voiced skepticism at a Senate hearing about the president’s constitutional authority to order wiretapping on Americans without a court order. They also suggested that the program could imperil criminal prosecutions that grew out of the wiretaps.
Judge [tag]Harold A. Baker[/tag], a sitting federal judge in Illinois who served on the intelligence court until last year, said the president was bound by the law “like everyone else.” If a law like the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is duly enacted by Congress and considered constitutional, Judge Baker said, “the president ignores it at the president’s peril.”
The president, of course, disagrees. What’s more, so do most congressional Republicans who seem to be split between two principal camps: those who believe Bush should be able to do whatever he pleases with no oversight and those who believe Bush should be able to do whatever he pleases with almost no oversight.
The latter group, you’ll recall, includes Sens. Mike DeWine (Ohio), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Chuck Hagel (Neb.), and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), who unveiled a proposal earlier this month that would allow the administration to conduct surveillance on Americans, without a warrant or any oversight, for up to 45 days. After that, the Justice Department would have to a) end the surveillance; b) ask the FISA court for a warrant; or c) tell a handful of lawmakers in Congress that there’s not enough evidence for a warrant, but the administration wants to keep the surveillance up anyway.
In this context, the former judges offered good advice to the senators yesterday. I know it’s pre-9/11 thinking to believe the president is bound by the law “like everyone else,” but maybe there are still a few members of the Senate who are inclined to agree.