A small victory for constitutional government

It's a small victory for Constitutional government, but a victory nevertheless. The House Judiciary Committee has passed a motion requiring the Government to turn over to the House all NSA requests for information from the telephone companies. Arlen Specter wouldn't dare do this in the Senate.

The House Judiciary Committee unexpectedly passed a Democratic resolution Wednesday morning calling on the Justice Department to turn over all requests made by the National Security Agency and other federal agencies to telephone service providers to obtain information without a warrant.

The measure was passed by a voice vote Wednesday morning with support of Republican Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI). It was introduced by Florida Democrat Robert Wexler.

Sensenbrenner told the Committee he would bring the measure to the full House floor for a vote if the Justice Department did not comply with his earlier requests for information about the program.

The resolution is not a subpoena. It would have to pass the full House before it had the effect of law.