The right to privacy

Repeal the Patriot Act

• Return the right to privacy to Americans

Yes, the revelations last week that the government has been spying on Americans by securing data about whom we call on our phones or whom we talk to in e-mail messages is outrageous. 

However, what is really hilarious -- were it not so serious -- is the reaction of people like Wisconsin Rep. James Sensenbrenner, who brags about being one of the "authors" of the Patriot Act (a misnomer if there ever was one). Now, Sensenbrenner complains that some of the act should be changed.

Sensenbrenner is wrong: We should repeal the entire act and start over with some consideration about the right to privacy and freedom of speech that all Americans were provided in the Bill of Rights.

Some of us who are concerned for personal liberty complained in 2001 that the Patriot Act expanded the powers of the government beyond what was necessary to capture terrorists. The law was passed after the devastating attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, so emotion, rather than logic, prevailed. 

Now, suddenly, people from both sides of the political spectrum are complaining that the PRISM program that allows data mining by the government is an unconstitutional intrusion into the privacy rights of Americans. 

Finally, America will have a true debate about whether or not the Patriot Act is an infringement of our rights. One United States senator wants to have that discussion. Bernie Sanders, the Independent U.S. senator from Vermont, strutted out last week with this pronouncement, "As one of the members of Congress who consistently voted against the Patriot Act, I expressed concern at the time of passage that it gave the government far too much power to spy on innocent Americans. Unfortunately, what I said turned out to be exactly true." <http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/06/06/bernie-sanders-on-the-patriot-act-what-i-said-turned-out-to-be-exactly-true/>

Sanders said in 2001 that the act went beyond what was necessary to find terrorists. The practice of the National Security Agency in mining this data today has outraged Americans, as it should. 

The Patriot Act was a expansion of government powers beyond what it needed to protect. All of us want to capture terrorists, but we should also want to stand up for the Bill of Rights. In effect, the fourth amendment (unreasonable searches and seizures) and the first amendment guarantees (freedom of speech) are violated by the Patriot Act. 

Sanders is right. Let's have that discussion about what is and what is not an invasion of privacy and what we can say on the phone or in internet messages. 

Unfortunately, we will find that many of the people who are complaining about Obama's program were the first ones to extend that government power to George W. Bush in 2001.  

This should not be political. Both Republican and Democratic presidents have violated the rights of Americans. 

Let's talk about it. 

Addendum: Constitutional scholar Alan Dershowitz said the following about this topic: 

" ... reform of the current excesses of surveillance is indeed necessary. There is too much secrecy, too little accountability, too much classification, not enough information, too much speculation. This all feeds into the paranoid streak because we don’t know what we don’t know. For those who trust the government this informational lacunae is an excuse for inaction. For those who do not trust the government, it is an excuse for ranting and raving instead of legislating compromised reform."

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/06/09/is-prism-really-a-scandal.html

Addendum 2:  Russ Feingold, the only U.S. Senator who voted against the Patriot Act in 2001, said this today (also link to his original comments on the floor of the U.S. Senate):

Former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) was the only senator to vote against the Patriot Act in 2001. (Brendan Hoffman/Bloomberg via Getty Images). After the Guardian revealed that the National Security Agency seized millions of Verizon customers' phone records through a secret court order, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), one of the authors of the legislation that opened the door to this practice, said he was stunned.

"I do not believe the released FISA order is consistent with the requirements of the Patriot Act," Sensenbrenner wrote in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder. "How could the phone records of so many innocent Americans be relevant to an authorized investigation as required by the Act?"

But this sort of data collection -- along with what the NSA is doing through itsPRISM program -- is exactly what then-Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) warned about when he was the only senator to vote against the Patriot Act in 2001.

http://epic.org/privacy/terrorism/usapatriot/feingold.html