By a vote of 293-129, Congress says Americans' civil liberties are not as important as protecting "patriotic" telecom companies from lawsuits

A bill passed friday afternoon which essentially give immunity to the telecom companies--namely, Verizon and AT&T--which participated in the Bush Administration's now notorious surveillance program, incepted shortly after 9/11, that allowed the NSA to intercept calls made from US residents to locations overseas.  The compliant telephone companies, which have been threatened with lawsuits in the past from those people who suspected they were the victims of wiretapping, now have immunity from such lawsuits, pending a court review.  This court review is little more than a formality, however, as the only thing necessary to dismiss a lawsuit outright would be proof that the telecom company was acting under orders from the White House--which we already know to be the case.

And what about the implications for our civil liberties, you

 ask?  Let's let Rep. Pete Hoekstra, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, answer:

The intelligence community depends on "the backing of patriotic, private companies...Those business that cooperate are putting their shareholders and employees at stake, and they deserve support--not multibillion-dollar lawsuits."  In other words, America's largest telecom corporations can't be bothered by our pithy desire for freedom from warrantless spying.  Well said, indeed.

Read More about wiretapping, court cases, and constitutionality at the ACLU website.