Don’t Shoot the Messenger: Telecommunications Carriers Deserve Immunity

ITIF has released a paper on proposed legislation to overhaul the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and, in particular, on proposals to deny immunity to telecommunications carriers that complied with the federal government's surveillance program post 9/11. The paper makes two key points. First, the Bush Administration was wrong in not working with Congress from the beginning in implementing its post-9/11 emergency surveillance program. Second, the focus of Congress' efforts should be on updating FISA, not on holding telecommunications carriers legally liable for complying with what they believed was a legal government order.