Nearly every major newspaper editorial across the country warned Congress that passing the recent FISA legislation would go too far. Concerns about Fourth Amendment constitutional protections of unreasonable search and seizure and the fact that a coming report on the FISA process had not been available yet were major reasons for the deluge of media warning Congress to slow the process down. Also, a U.S. Circuit Court judge just ruled that a state-secrets defense (classified material) which is used in the Bush legal defense cannot pre-empt FISA.

Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe voted to ignore these warnings and support President Bush and his legally questionable use of FISA to concentrate power in the office of the president. Our two Republican senators chose to weaken the role of their own Congress in the separations of power essential to a democracy.

Verizon, the object of a lawsuit in Maine, AT&T and other telecoms were given immunity from prosecution in the legislation. This provides almost certain legal death to attempts to hold Bush accountable for possible illegal action in approving warrantless wiretapping on the American people.

The real result of the FISA decision granted by Snowe and Collins was immunity for George W. Bush.

Nancy Allen

Brooksville