The Seattle Times notes that our privacy dike appears to be a little holey:
A federal board responsible for protecting Americans against abuses by spy agencies is in disarray just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
The five-member Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board will have only two remaining members as of Jan. 7 — and zero Democrats even though it is required to operate as an independent, bipartisan agency. The vacancies mean it will lack the minimum three members required to conduct business and can work only on ongoing projects. Trump would have to nominate new members, who would have to be confirmed by the Senate.
The board was revitalized after former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden’s disclosures on the scope of U.S. spying in 2013. It notably concluded that the NSA’s phone surveillance program was illegal.
Since then, it has been crucial in ensuring members of Congress and the public have a window into the highly secretive and classified world of intelligence agencies. But it’s unclear if Trump will support robust intelligence oversight. During his campaign, Trump appeared to support strengthened intelligence overall and surveillance of mosques, but he’s more recently expressed distrust of intelligence agencies. The Trump transition team didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lovely. I bet they didn’t even know it existed. But then, neither did I.
Paul Rosenzweig doesn’t think Trump cares, either:
Anyone who thinks that filling the PCLOB’s 3 or 4 open slots will be an early priority of the incoming Trump Administration will also be interested in the bridge I have available for sale in Brooklyn. [Though, to be fair, filling the board was unlikely to be a high-priority for the Clinton Administration either.] Best guess: The board is unable to function for all of 2017 if not longer — and that can’t be a good thing for governance.
