The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board is the only body in the executive branch of the United States government with independent power to investigate and report on violations of privacy and constitutional liberties in the U.S. government’s “War on Terror.”
In one of the most under-reported stories of the summer, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) has been without a chair since July 1 of this year. Without a chair, any single member of the PCLOB can entirely block any action. This is not a hypothetical problem: two members of the PCLOB have a demonstrated anti-liberty record.
With 160 days left in his presidential term, Barack Obama has apparently decided that the PCLOB doesn’t need a chair. President Obama has failed to nominate a replacement chair. Without a chair, the PCLOB hasn’t scheduled any events for the entire year of 2016, and no board meetings have been scheduled either.
Threats to civil liberties in the United States have not gone away. So why is Barack Obama making the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board effectively disappear?
