Surveillance Democracy in ‘Murka: Shitty Immunity or Less Shitty Immunity
As a number of outlets are reporting, on Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee will mark up a manager’s amendment to the USA Freedom Act. On Thursday, the House Intelligence Committee will mark up the shitty Ruppersberger-Rogers bill.
I’ll have more details on what’s in the Manager’s Amendment. But here’s one thing that will be in both the less shitty HJC bill and the very shitty RuppRoge bill: Immunity.
(e) No cause of action shall lie in any court against a person who produces tangible things or provides information, facilities, or technical assistance pursuant to an order issued or an emergency production required under this section. Such production shall not be deemed to constitute a waiver of any privilege in any other proceeding or context.
American democracy! Where you can choose between immunity as part of a less shitty bill or immunity as part of a very shitty bill!
Either way, you get immunity.
As far as I know, there is only one qualification for getting immunity and that has always been committing a crime. No one needs immunity if they’re innocent.
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By providing immunity, this bill therefore implicitly acknowledges that the underlying acts it describes are criminal.