Senate Intelligence chair calls for court supervision of surveillance program News
Senate Intelligence chair calls for court supervision of surveillance program

[JURIST] US Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) [official website], chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee [official website], said in an interview with the New York Times reported Saturday that he wants to bring the Bush administration's domestic surveillance program [JURIST news archive] within the authority of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) [FJC backgrounder]. Roberts acknowledged that he was unclear on the mechanics of the FISC, and he voiced some concern over the speed with which a FISC court could produce surveillance warrants, but his statement breaks with administration policy and departs from his previous position that Congress should not interpose itself in the President's surveillance program. Last week Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) [official website] announced [JURIST report] last week that he was working on a bill that would bring explicitly bring the surveillance program within the purview of the FISC. The New York Times has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Pope Urban II sparks First Crusade

Pope Urban II threw his support behind what would become the First Crusade on November 27, 1095 during the Council of Clairmont. The Pope urged the council's participants to render aid to the Byzantine Empire, which was being attacked by the Seljuks. Pope Urban called for a wide coalition of rich and poor to combat the threat, which eventually resulted in the conquest of much of the Muslim-controlled Levant by the Crusaders and the establishment of the Crusader States. Read Pope Urban's address.  

Catholic Code of Canon Law revised

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