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Law Professor Peter Swire, who served as President Clinton's chief advisor for privacy, has published an editorial on the Bush Administration's establishment of a civil liberties board.
My story in Wired News about the board and the very critical reception it got in the privacy community can be found here.
Congress is working on its own version – but it will complement, not replace, the administration's.
This might actually be a good thing. I understand that many people pushed hard to get on the civil liberties board and that there's a good chance it will be effective at the policy level.
But it is not set up like an independent, investigative body. That gives Congress some leeway to do just that.
So, what we might end up with is a very high level policy board (though as Swire points out, it makes more sense to put an inter-agency group in the White House, rather than in the DOJ), AND a fairly powerful investigative watchdog board.
This might just be the right thing.
We'll have to see what Congress comes up with and also see what the Board does, starting with its first meeting, which has to happen within about two weeks.
Posted by Ryan Singel at September 1, 2004 12:41 PM
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