"We thought it would be a bad idea to allow these companies to be held legally liable for cooperating with the government ... you want to encourage the cooperation of not just the telecom industry, but all other industries in the future."Great. Heaven forbid that companies might fail to cooperate with illegal directives from the government!
It's the dawning of the Second Empire in America...
(...and it's funny to see a nice Leninist argument being made on Daily Kos: There is no third way!)