Intellectual Property Law

The Senate moved closer Tuesday morning to approving retroactive immunity for telecoms that helped the Bush administration spy on Americans, denying by a vote of 31-67 an amendment that would have stripped amnesty from a bill expanding the government's spy powers.

The amendment to the Senate Intelligence Committee-sponsored spying bill was sponsored by Christopher Dodd (D-Connecticut) who has been vociferous in his opposition to the immunity. Last night, Dodd, a former '08 presidential candidate, describing immunity as "contempt for law." He has threatened to filibuster any bill that contains such a provision.

In addition to providing a get-out-of-court-free card for companies such as AT&T and Verizon, the bill also largely legalizes Bush's secret wiretapping program, by letting the NSA spy inside American telecom and internet infrastructure without getting court approval or having particular targets in mind.

The Senate is voting Tuesday on a series of amendments to the bill. The full bill is set for a vote later Tuesday. Other amendments in play include a scheme to move all the lawsuits to a secret spying court and a proposal from Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse and Arlen Specter (R-Pennsylvania) to substitute the government for the telecoms in the 40 or so civil cases pending against them.

UPDATE 12:10 p.m. EST: Both of these amendments failed to get a majority of votes. /UPDATE

Proponents of immunity contend the lawsuits will expose how the nation's spies collect information and say the telecoms responded in good faith to requests for help from the administration.

Opponents say the telecoms massively violated federal privacy law intended to protect Americans from overzealous spies and clearly knew the requests violated the law.

Any bill passed by the Senate must be reconciled with a House version. In the fall, the House passed the RESTORE Act, which did not include immunity and limited more sharply when the government could spy inside the United States without getting a court order.

That reconciliation process will by complicated by Monday's death of Rep. Tom Lantos (D-California), since the House will be closed for business on Thursday and Friday so lawmakers can attend Lantos's funeral.

All votes for the bill came from Democrats (and Vermont Independent Bernie Sanders), all Republicans voted against the bill and 15 Democrats voted to keep immunity. As for the presidential contenders, Senator Hilary Clinton (D-New York) did not vote, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Illinois) voted against immunity, and Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) voted for it.