I just re-read an article I wrote in 1996 (originally published in The Champion at 20 Champion 33, available on Lexis.com) titled Partisan Politics vs. the Bill of Rights. It was about a host of privacy-intrusive surveillance measures then being proposed by Clinton and the Democrats in the name of the war on terror. With a few word substitutions, like "9/11" for "TWA Flight 800" and Bush for Clinton, there's not much difference between then and now. Except that then, conservatives in Congress came to the rescue. Where are they now? It begins:
Congress has once again placed itself on a collision course with the Bill of Rights. With the presidential and congressional elections just two months away, our politicians are once more trying to demonstrate their tough stance on crime and concern for our security by introducing and promising swift passage of legislation that diminishes our privacy rights and provides even greater powers to federal law enforcement agencies.
Using the tragedies of TWA Flight 800 and the Olympic bombing in Atlanta to instill fear of terrorism in the heart of every American, our politicians are promising to make us safe and secure by giving the FBI the power to wiretap more of us with less judicial scrutiny, to access our personal and financial records with no judicial oversight, and to seize our assets by classifying us as "terrorists" based upon our personal and political beliefs.
President Clinton and the Democrats are behind this latest assault on our privacy rights.......
I then describe some of the pertinent laws and proposals, like the Digital Telephony Act (the "Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act," PL 103- 414, commonly known as the "National Wiretap Plan") passed in 1995; the "Aviation Security and Anti-Terrorism Act of 1996"; and the Anti-Terrorism Law Enforcement Enhancement Act of 1996."
The more things change, the more they remain the same. Still, if there's proof Clinton intentionally broke the existing law on electronic surveillance, I haven't seen it yet.