Wednesday after tweeting “I’ve just taken to the Senate floor to begin a filibuster of the Patriot Act renewal,” 2016 presidential hopeful Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) challenged the Patriot Act saying, “I will not let the Patriot Act, the most unpatriotic of acts, go unchallenged.”
He continued, “At the very least we should debate. We should debate whether or not we are going to relinquish our rights or whether or not we are going to have a full and able debate over what we can live within — whether or not we can live within the Constitution or whether or not we have to go around the constitution. The bulk collection of all Americans’ phone records all of the time is a direct violation of the fourth amendment. the second appeals court has ruled till legal. The president began this program by executive order. He should immediately end it through executive order. Over a year now, he has said the program is illegal and yet he does nothing. he says, well, congress can get rid of the Patriot Act, Congress can get rid of the bulk collection, and yet he has the power to do it at his fingertips. He began this illegal program. The court has informed him that the program is illegal. He has every power to stop it and yet the president does nothing.”
He continued, “The Fourth Amendment incorporates this right to privacy. The Fourth amendment incorporates this right to be left alone. When we think about the bulk collection of records, you might ask, well, maybe I’m willing to give up my freedom for security. Maybe if I just gave up a little freedom I’ll be more safe. Well, most of the information that comes on whether you’re a sufficient or not comes from people who have secret information that you’re not allowed to look at. So you have to trust the people. you have to trust those in our intellectual intends community that they’re being honest with you, that when they tell you how important these programs are and that you must give up your freedoms, you must give up part of the Fourth Amendment. When they tell you this, you have to trust them. The problem is that we’re having a great deal of difficulty trusting these people. When James Clapper, the head of the Intelligence Agency, the Director of National Intelligence, was asked point-blank, are you collecting the records of Americans’ phone records in bulk, he said no. It turns out that that was dishonest. And yet President Obama still has him in place.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.