Join senator Paul by signing this petition for invasions of rights Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is none too pleased with President Barack Obama’s broad interpretation of the PATRIOT Act and use of surveillance techniques on innocent Americans. During his appearance yesterday on Fox News Sunday, Paul explained that the type activity in which the NSA has engaged is a direct infringement of the Fourth Amendment. “[T]hey’re looking at a billion phone calls a day is what I read in the press and that doesn’t sound to me like a modest invasion of privacy. It sounds like an extraordinary invasion of privacy. The Fourth Amendment says you can look at and ask for a warrant specific to a person, place and the items,” noted Paul, who has established himself as one of the more vocal defenders of civil liberties in Washington. “This is a general warrant. This is what we objected to and what our Founding Fathers partly fought the revolution over is they did not want generalized warrants where you could go from house to house with soldiers looking for things or now from computer to computer, to phone to phone, without specifying who you’re targeting.” Chris Wallace, host of Fox News Sunday, asked Paul about a couple specific examples of terrorists plots that werre allegedly thwarted as a result of the program, including a plot to bomb the New York City subway (that claim has also turned out to be false). Paul explained that he has no problem with specific targeting of suspected terrorists, but that’s not what is going on with this program. “My suspicion is — and a lot of this is classified so another side gets to promote their case and we don’t get the information — but my suspicion is that this gentleman was targeted because they suspected him for being a terrorist. I have no problem if you have probable cause and you target people who are terrorists and you go after them and people that they’re communicating with, you get another warrant,” Paul told Wallace. “But we’re talking about trolling through billions of phone records. We’re not talking about going after a terrorist. I’m all for that. Get a warrant and go after a terrorist, or a murderer or a rapist. But don’t troll through a billion phone records every day.” Paul also explained that he is looking at challenging the administration at the Supreme Court. “I’m going to be seeing if I can challenge this at the Supreme Court level. I’m going to be asking all the Internet providers and all of the phone companies, ask your customers to join me in a class action lawsuit,” he said. “If we get 10 million Americans saying we don’t want our phone records looked at then somebody will wake up and say things will change in Washington.” In 2011, Paul offered amendments during the debate over the PATRIOT Act renewal that would have provided some measure of transparency. Most of those amendments were blocked by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who questioned Paul’s patriotism in the process. Paul once again brought up civil liberties during the FISA re-authorization debate. One of the amendments Paul introduced would have specifically prohibited warrantless searches of cell phone records. It was, unfortunately, rejected. Last week, Paul announced that he would introduce the Fourth Amendment Protection Act. In a press release from his office, Paul said that this legislation “restores our Constitutional rights and declares that the Fourth Amendment shall not be construed to allow any agency of the United States government to search the phone records of Americans without a warrant based on probable cause.” While restoring the Fourth Amendment is going to be a tough fight, there are members from both sides of the aisle — Paul and his colleagues, Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Mike Lee (R-UT), Mark Udall (D-CO), and Ron Wyden (D-OR) — that are going to lead the effort. Related Posts NSA Scandal Brings Reminders of Past PATRIOT Act Abuse "1984" Sales Skyrocket in Wake of NSA Scandal Why The NSA Collecting Your Phone Records Is A Problem Nancy Pelosi Denies Overselling ObamaCare Senator Obama vs. President Obama on Government Surveillance
Posted on: Mon, 10 Jun 2013 21:17:26 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015