Bipartisan Move To End Unconstitutional Domestic Spying

There are now 117 congressmembers cosponsoring H.R. 3361, the John Sensenbrenner and John Conyers-penned USA Freedom Act introduced at the end of October. The official summary of the bill says it aims to end "eavesdropping, dragnet-collection, and Online Monitoring Act or the USA FREEDOM Act-- Amends the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) to set forth additional requirements for obtaining orders for business records in counterterrorism investigations, including requiring that the records sought pertain to a foreign power, an agent of a foreign power, or an individual in contact with, or known to a suspected agent of, a foreign power."

There are 61 Democrats and 56 Republicans who have signed on, predominantly progressive Democrats-- like Jerry Nadler, Alan Grayson, Barbara Lee, Mike Honda, Judy Chu, and Mark Pocan-- and libertarian-leaning Republicans-- like Justin Amash, Tim Huelskamp, Matt Salmon, Walter Jones, and Tom McClintock. But even some Establishment shills from both sides of the aisle are breaking ranks with their party leaders and signing on. Other than Mike Michaud, I didn't see any Blue Dogs on the list but some conservative New Dems have felt the pressure to back the legislation, even as useless a Pentagon-asskisser as Colleen Hanabusa, hoping to trick Hawaii Democrats into nominating her for a Senate seat.

Boehner has tried to bury to bill by sending if off to cronies of his who head the Judiciary Committee (Bob Goodlatte), the Financial Services Committee (Jeb Hensarling) and the Intelligence Committee (Mike Rogers), all implacable opponents of the legislation. Last week, one of the bill's most ardent proponents, Alan Grayson, sent his supporters an e-mail called Bug Off:

The spying-industrial complex always rationalizes pervasive domestic spying on the basis that, supposedly, it is necessary to keep us safe. But as I pointed out in a speech on the Floor of the House a few months ago, there is no threat to national security when I call my mother. On Monday, in the landmark decision of Klayman v. Obama, No. 13-0851 (D.D.C. Dec. 16, 2013), Judge Richard Leon ordered an end to NSA monitoring of the two innocent plaintiffs. The NSA’s “bulk telephony metadata program” generates a report to the NSA on every phone call that every American makes. Judge Leon invited the NSA to prove in court that this program had ever contributed in any way to thwarting a terrorist attack. The NSA came up empty.


[Quoting Judge Leon] I cannot imagine a more “indiscriminate” and “arbitrary invasion” than this systematic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen for purposes of querying and analyzing it without prior judicial approval. Surely, such a program infringes on “that degree of privacy” that the Founders enshrined in the Fourth Amendment. Indeed, I have little doubt that the author of our Constitution, James Madison, who cautioned us to beware “the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power,” would be aghast.

I applaud Judge Leon’s ruling. In my opinion, the NSA has run a giant con game on the American People, telling us that we have to give up our freedom to preserve our safety, when in fact the NSA has done little or nothing to keep us safe. The NSA has tried to fool us, knowing that a fool and his freedom are soon parted. Thank you, Judge Leon, for telling the truth to the American People.

Let Freedom Ring.