Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and committee members Christopher Dodd (D-Ct.), Russell Feingold (D-Wis.), and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) are expected to introduced in the Senate today a bill that would repeal the immunity granted to telecommunications companies under the FISA Amendments Act (FAA) passed last year. The immunity provisions ensured the dismissal of several court cases pending against companies that helped the Bush administration engage in illegal warrantless wiretapping. The Retroactive Immunity Repeal Act would eliminate that immunity.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which is still challenging the constitutionality of the FAA in federal court, not surprisingly came out today with this statement from Michael Macleod-Ball, Acting Director of the ACLU’s Washington office, in favor of the new bill:
Passing both the FISA Amendments Act last year and the telecom immunity provision within it was a huge blow to Americans’ privacy. The grant of immunity to giant telecommunications companies was a grievous insult to the concept of privacy in America and we welcome the effort to reinstate Americans’ ability to challenge government spying and malfeasance. We urge Congress to repeal the immunity provision of the FISA Amendments Act quickly. Otherwise, Americans may never learn the truth about what the companies and the government did with our private communications.