Last week, the influential Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) sent a letter to Speaker of the House Pelosi opposing amnesty for telecommunications companies involved in the illegal warrantless surveillance program. CCIA encouraged Congress "to reject broad immunity provisions in favor of a better balance between legitimate national security interests and basic Fourth Amendment privacy for U.S. citizens."

The venerable CCIA, "a nonprofit membership organization for a wide range of companies in the computer, Internet, information technology, and telecommunications industries," recognized that "[c]ommercial enterprises have the right to insist, as apparently one telephone company (Qwest) had done, that government requests for customer information be accompanied by appropriate legal authorization from a court or some official of the judicial branch of government."

We applaud CCIA for taking a stand for justice and for the privacy and security of the American people.