“fumble an issue “
It’s impossible to fumble a nonexistent ‘issue’ (the kind politicians love best).
There just isn’t any significant difference between the Patriot Act and the Freedom Act.
Having the metadata kept by the companies is slightly better structurally than having it kept by the NSA.
The issue hasn’t been significant for anyone because it’s just too fine a distinction.
Of course it’s fun to treat it as if it mattered a great deal, make broad extrapolations from thin air: politicians love that.
Heck, using a telephone was public speech- with NO privacy protection- as recently as 1967.
I imagine the courts will endow 4th Amendment coverage on to the internet one day as they did for telephones.
There just isn’t any significant difference between the Patriot Act and the Freedom Act.
Having the metadata kept by the companies is slightly better structurally than having it kept by the NSA.
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There are two significant differences. First, the federal government may no longer illegally collect information about it entire citizenry. Second, the Patriot Act was a giant leap into the world of big brother authoritarianism whereas the Freedom Act is a step back from Orwell’s 1984.
Corporations, primarily phone companies, collected the metadata previously, that has not changed. I prefer Rand Paul’s stance on the issue of privacy and the government’s strict obedience to the Constitution but a victory, even a small one, is a victory, nonetheless.