House Dems, The PATRIOT Act, And The Homeland Security Bill.

While the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings ended in PATRIOT Act reauthorization proposal that provoked Russ Feingold to dub it the "prosecutors committee," House Democrats John Conyers, Jerry Nadler, and Bobby Scott have proposed a bill that contains most of the reforms Feingold proposed in the JUSTICE Act -- absent his proposed changes to FISA. (For a good summary of what was in the JUSTICE Act, read Julian Sanchez' piece from a couple of weeks ago.) Marcy Wheeler has a good explanation of what's in yesterday's bill here. The House Dems have proposed the FISA reforms in a separate bill, which makes them less likely to get through.

Separately, the Homeland Security Appropriations bill is just about ready for President Obama's signature, and it contains two wins for the White House: The Joe Lieberman engineered FISA amendment that allows the Secretary of Defense to exempt photographs of detainee abuse taken between 2001 and 2009, preempting the ongoing FOIA lawsuit over the photos the ACLU is pursuing, and a provision that allows Guantanamo Bay detainees to be brought to the United States, but only for trial.

Michael Maceod-Ball, chief legislative and policy counsel for the ACLU's Washington office, said the Guantanamo provision "recognizes the legitimacy and the value of using the criminal justice system to try these guys. It’s the only place to make sure their convictions stand the test of time and will be viewed as legitimate in the eyes of the rest of the world.” He added that the provision, because it still does not allow Guantanamo Bay detainees to be settled inside the United States still “places a big hurdle in front of the administration in terms of closing Guantanamo.”

-- A. Serwer