One casualty of the coronavirus outbreak is any idea of abolishing or even reforming the FISA court system. Quietly and with little fanfare, Democrats and Republicans have come together to keep this ongoing blatant violation of our Constitution alive. Once it became apparent that this system could be exploited by whatever party is in power to spy on the political opposition, it should have been allowed to die a quiet ignominious death.
The FISA court was initially set up to provide warrants to wiretap foreign spies. In 2016 it was used to spy on the political opponent of the incumbent administration. That the court was so easily deceived into granting the warrants fo this is bad enough. The fact there were no consequences for this total failure to protect the Constitutional rights of US citizens is unconscionable.
President Nixon was forced to resign, and many in his administration went to jail because of a botched burglary of Democratic campaign offices. For most others, at the very least, their Washington careers were history. What happened in 2016 was Watergate on steroids, but aside from a few people losing their jobs, there has been almost no accountability from the Obama Administration or the Clinton Campaign.
Now, through their usual inaction, Congress has invited even more abuses of the kind that happened in the name of political partisanship in 2016. If someone as rich and powerful as Donald Trump was as a private citizen could be a victim of this, then anyone who opposes the status quo can easily be crushed at the whim of whoever is in power. That should scare the hell out of anyone, no matter what your political leanings.
