Posted on 06/16/2020 6:21:29 PM PDT by RandFan
... The FISA would still be allowed to investigate political campaigns, but new procedural hurdles were put in place. Weak sauce, I say. I offered an amendment to exclude the FISA court from investigating Americans.
My logic was that FISA warrants did not require adherence to the Fourth Amendment, so FISA warrants shouldn’t be issued for Americans. FISA warrants ask that a judge ascertain "probable cause" of someone being an agent of a foreign country, and the accused is not allowed to challenge or even know of the warrant.
The Constitution, in the Fourth Amendment, requires that a judge ascertain "probable cause" of a crime, and the accused ultimately gets to challenge the warrant.
Anything short of guaranteeing that each and every citizen gets the protection of the Fourth Amendment is "weak sauce" and an insult to people that want the abuse heaped on this president by the intelligence community to never happen again.
My amendment failed. Eleven constitutional conservatives voted for it, and not one Democrat could emerge from Trump Derangement fog to support the Constitution.
Funny thing, though. President Trump watched from afar and then threatened to veto the bill because it didn’t really reform FISA. So, three provisions of the Patriot Act, including Section 215’s mass surveillance of Americans, have been expired for some three months.
Hmmm. Perhaps we could go back to just living under the Constitution? I hope Trump will veto the "weak sauce" fake reform bill, as it does next to nothing to prevent another president from being abused by our intelligence community.
In the meantime, everyone should remember Benjamin Franklin’s admonition that those who trade their liberty for security may well wind up with neither.
Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican, is the junior senator from Kentucky.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
Most of it needs to be repealed.
He’s right, as usual.
FISA needs to be repealed, all of it.
They have proven they cannot be trusted with that kind of power.
I thought the whole idea of a ‘Bill of Rights’ meant Congress couldn’t make laws to infringe on them - what am I missing ?
The whole Patriot act needs to be repealed.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.