The government's ability to tap private phone calls is under siege. Newly developed encryption systems allow callers to mathematically scramble their messages so that no one, including the government, can eavesdrop. The Clinton administration is running scared and proposes two fixes, neither satisfactory.
Government needs to wiretap under legally restricted circumstances.
But before tampering with existing arrangements, the administration must show that its proposals are workable and will not trample on existing rights to conduct private phone conversations. So far it has cleared neither hurdle. The problem with this plan is that its sweeping prohibitions threaten to stop telecommunication innovations before anyone calculates the consequences. The government hopes that in time Clipper phones would become standard equipment everywhere. But many experts predict that Clipper phones will not become standard.