FC: Sen. Russ Feingold's lonely privacy fight

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Thu Oct 11 2001 - 08:28:15 PDT

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    Details on Feingold's four amendments:
    http://www.wartimeliberty.com/article.pl?sid=01/10/11/1430203
    
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    http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,47490,00.html
    
       A Senator's Lonely Privacy Fight
       By Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
       6:08 a.m. Oct. 11, 2001 PDT
       
       WASHINGTON -- Russ Feingold is fighting a lonely battle for privacy in
       the U.S. Senate.
       
       The 48-year-old Wisconsin Democrat is singlehandedly trying to add
       pro-privacy changes to an eavesdropping bill that would hand police
       unprecedented surveillance powers.
       
       His stand has been causing friction with his own party: This week
       Feingold refused to bow to a request from Majority Leader Tom Daschle
       (D-South Dakota) for an immediate vote on the complex, 243-page bill.
       Daschle had asked senators to agree unanimously that it was time to
       move onto the anti-terrorism measure that was drafted in response to
       the Sept. 11 attacks.
       
       Instead, insisted the former Rhodes Scholar-turned-politico, senators
       should have a chance to carefully consider the USA Act (PDF) before
       voting on it. Said Feingold: "I can't quite understand why we can't
       have just a few hours of debate."
       
       When the USA Act, which has broad support from his colleagues and the
       White House, goes to the Senate floor as early as midday Thursday,
       Feingold plans to offer four amendments to it. According to a draft,
       the amendments would:
       
         * Still allow police to perform "roving wiretaps" and listen in on
           any telephone that a subject of an investigation might use. But
           they would only be permitted to eavesdrop when that person is the
           one using the phone.
         * Preserve the privacy of sensitive records -- such as medical or
           educational data -- by requiring police to convince a judge that
           viewing them is necessary. Without that amendment, the USA Act
           would expand police's ability to access any type of stored or
           "tangible" information.
         * Bar police from obtaining a court order, sneaking into a suspect's
           home and not notifiying that person they had been there. The
           "secret search" section currently is part of the USA Act -- and is
           something the Justice Department has wanted at least since 1999,
           when it unsuccessfully asked Congress for that power.
         * Clarify that universities, libraries and employers may only snoop
           on people who use their computers in narrow circumstances. Right
           now, the USA Act says that system administrators may monitor
           anyone they deem a "computer trespasser."
    
       [...]
    
    
    
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