SURPRISING?:

Justice Defends Telecom Immunity in Surveillance Law (Keith Perine, 2/26/09, CQ)

The Justice Department is defending a provision in a 2008 surveillance law that provides legal immunity to telecommunications companies that cooperated with the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program.

The department was expected to defend the provision. But its stance in a brief filed Wednesday in a California federal court underscores the surprising degree to which the Obama administration — at least in court — is determined to shield President George W. Bush ’s controversial counterterrorism policies from legal challenge or even public scrutiny.