During the past 8 years, the Bush administration listened to Americans' phone calls and read their emails without a warrant. On July 9, 2008, the Senate passed a bill to amend FISA, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, to further expand the government's warrantless wiretapping powers. The Senate also mocked the rule of law and gave telecom companies immunity for any illegal actions they may have taken without having to appear in court.

We lost that round. But it's not over: both the ACLU and EFF filed suit, and we're gearing up for another battle in 2009. Get FISA Right will continue to work with other groups fighting for our civil liberties on the web and on the streets.

If you want to help shape our direction, please join the discussions [6] about what next.
Please also join us on my.barackobama.com [7], Facebook [8], MySpace [9], our Google discussion group [10], and our blog [11] ... here are some recent posts

• Get FISA Right launches new pro-Constitution video on MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, and Comedy Channel [5]
• Time to celebrate! (and Ideas for Change update) [12]
• change.gov: voting deadline Sunday! (ways to help in less than one minute) [13]

If you’d like to help air the ad on cable TV stations in DC and across the country, you can donate on the SaysMe.tv site [14], or sign up to help with our February money bomb on Facebook [15] (details and other sites coming soon).

Congratulations, Get FISA Right on our #5 finish in "Ideas for Change in America"!

With a late rush, Get FISA Right, repeal the PATRIOT Act, and restore our civil liberties [16] squeaked into the #5 position in the change.org’s Ideas for Change in America competition with 12285 votes!

Alas, even though our other endorsement Bob Fertik’s Appoint a Special Prosecutor for the Crimes of the Bush Administration [17] picked up over 500 votes this morning, it appears to have fallen heartbreaking short by just 19 votes. Still, overall, wow, what a huge success for Get FISA Right — and civil liberties!

More in Time to celebrate! (and Ideas for Change update) [12] on our blog and Thomas Nephew's We’re Number 5! We’re Number 5! [18] on newsrackblog.com.

Our priorities for 2009

In the first 100 days of the Administration, we ask that President Obama

• stay immunity lawsuits until after the Inspectors' General report in July (EFF's What Obama Can and Should do to Stop Telecom Immunity discusses this)
• comply with FISA and other legislation (including the warrant requirements) and clarify that he will not assert "Article II" power
• defer bulk surveillance of Americans, even though it has been authorized by the FISA Amendment Act

We also ask the new Administraiton and Congress to revisit last summer's flawed FAA during the debate about whether to renew sections 206 and 215 of the PATRIOT Act -- and to sunset these clauses as well as repeal the PATRIOT Act as a whole.

Please see the Liberty and Security coalition's Recommendations for the Next Administration and Congress [19], EFF’s What Obama Can and Should do to Stop Telecom Immunity [20], ACLU's transition plan [21], and CDT's Reform of the National Security Surveillance Laws and Procedures [22] all have more information.

On January 13-14, we voted overwhelmingly to endorse a special prosecutor [23]. As Sarah G said in the voting thread [24],

We must defend the Constitution; whereas we must move forward, we cannot allow the Bush-administration precedents to stand. Nixon’s misconduct led to the passage of FISA; current attempts to short-circuit the Constitution must be followed up similarly.