
House cancels vote to renew surveillance powers after Trump threatened veto - albertop
https://www.wsj.com/articles/house-cancels-vote-to-renew-surveillance-powers-after-trump-threatened-veto-11590675372
======
boojums
This sounds like surprisingly good news. I would be curious what caused the
shift.

> “The two-thirds of the Republican party that voted for this bill in March
> have indicated they are going to vote against it now,” Mr. [House Majority
> Leader ]Hoyer said. “I am told they are doing so at the request of the
> President. I believe this to be against the security interest of the United
> States and the safety of the American people.”

~~~
elliekelly
His tweets suggest that he believes his privacy had previously been invaded by
FISA court-approved wiretapping under the Obama administration. Like most
things he says, that seems to be mostly false but based in a shred of truth:
someone from his campaign was subject to wiretapping approved by a FISA court
as part of the Russian election interference investigation. He’s linking FISA
to his “Obamagate” conspiracy. This explains his party’s push to add language
to the bill providing additional due process before a FISA court could approve
wiretapping a candidate for an elected office in the federal government.

A win for civil rights is a win for civil rights though. I hope.

~~~
4bpp
Might wind up being a net loss, because now Democrat-associated civil rights
organisations such as the ACLU will be reluctant to be seen opposing FISA
courts lest they be accused of providing fire support to Trump. Nominally one
would expect Republican-aligned or neutral organisations to pick up the slack
to the same extent as the Democrat ones drop it, but I am not aware of any
ones that are similarly established and effective in the civil liberties
niche.

~~~
objclxt
> Democrat-associated civil rights organisations such as the ACLU

There is an overlap in membership, but that doesn't always extend to policy:
the ACLU sued the Obama administration over immigration, and they have backed
up Rush Limbaugh, Oliver North, and the KKK in the past.

~~~
4bpp
I decided to go back and look at what came out of the handful of headlines
that filtered through to me in the past years that made me think this to be
the case, and it seems like the situation is probably not (yet) quite as bad
as I made it out to be: the most worrying instances that the ACLU is favouring
partisanship over principle are that their defense of that more recent far-
right rally caused an immense amount of internal pushback
([https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/04/us/aclu-
charlottesville-w...](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/04/us/aclu-
charlottesville-white-supremacists.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0)) and that they are
taking a decidedly pro-Democrat, anti-civil-rights stance on campus politics
([https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/11/aclu-
devos...](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/11/aclu-devos-title-
ix/576142/)), but there has been no explicit renunciation of their former
choice and they may have somewhat softened their stance (indicating that they
were still responsive to the criticism that it is out of line with their
principles?) on the latter.

(There is also something on healthcare that appears similar, but I'll freely
admit I don't understand enough about the background there and can't get past
the paywall without giving up data: [https://www.wsj.com/articles/wheres-the-
aclu-when-you-need-i...](https://www.wsj.com/articles/wheres-the-aclu-when-
you-need-it-1494455847))

------
m12k
Well, even a broken clock is right twice a day

------
saurik
It is infuriating how Pelosi seems to be the main person who really in the end
actually wanted these surveillance powers: she should be celebrating a win
here, not wishing that there were still a competent republican in office who
would have helped her keep FISA.

------
mikece
This is good news but I am concerned that “the other shoe is going to drop”
and A.G. Barr’s request that all encrypted communications have a back-door for
law enforcement (and hackers) will be strongly advocated. You know, to keep
the kids safe.

~~~
pm90
He can’t make requests that aren’t backed by any laws. He’s a law enforcer not
lawmaker.

~~~
panzagl
He also can't overturn math.

~~~
inimino
Don't be naive.

------
babesh
Just you wait. I suspect that it will eventually be passed when no one is
paying attention. This is just posturing on both sides.

------
WiseWeasel
Hooray! Trump’s fear of his corruption being (further) exposed works in our
favor!

~~~
klmadfejno
This is being downvoted, but it's probably not "wrong". This was used to look
into the trump campaign, and is likely a major reason that he's opposed to it.

