WASHINGTON — House Democratic leaders unveiled legislation Tuesday to update the nation’s wiretapping program, rejecting a Senate-passed version of the bill that would give telecommunications companies legal immunity for agreeing to participate in the program after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. President Bush and House Republicans have insisted that the House pass the Senate version of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) bill. Instead, top Democrats — including House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, House Intelligence Chairman Silvestre Reyes and Judiciary Chairman John Conyers — proposed that lawsuits against the phone companies could move forward through U.S. district courts. The government has effectively frozen all litigation by invoking the ‘state secrets’ doctrine, arguing that documents detailing the phone companies’ activities are classified. Under the proposed legislation, the companies would be able to argue their cases in court and present classified evidence to a judge during a closed proceeding without the presence of the plaintiffs. ‘We are not going to cave in to a retroactive immunity situation,’ Conyers said. He argued that ‘there’s no law school example in our memory that gives retroactive immunity for something you don’t know what you are giving it for. It […]