Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) told Breitbart News that Congress must pass his legislation to end the “unconstitutional sale of Americans’ data” from data brokers to law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
“Despite opposition from the Biden White House, the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act represents a bipartisan and bicameral agreement that American citizens deserve to have their rights protected by their government. Congress must pass this bill to ensure that the unconstitutional sale of Americans’ data without a warrant is ended,” Davidson told Breitbart News in a written statement.
The Ohio congressman spoke to Breitbart News as the House will soon vote on his legislation, H.R. 4639, the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act, a bill that would bar data brokers from selling Americans’ private data to intelligence and law enforcement agencies without a warrant. Conservatives such as Davidson argue that the so-called data broker loophole acts as a run-around to Fourth Amendment protections against warrantless searches.
Davidson’s legislation was meant to be included as an amendment in the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act (RISAA), a bill that passed through the House and would reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) removed language that would make the data broker no longer germane, and thus no longer included, so now the bill will have to be considered outside of the Section 702 bill.
WATCH: Rep. Warren Davidson Calls to Pass Amendment that Bans Pentagon from Circumventing Fourth Amendment
The data broker issue is not a theoretical concern; the Gun Owners of America (GOA), the Constitutional Sheriffs, the Peace Officers Association, and other groups have said that the data broker loophole represents a danger to gun owners.
Thirty House Republicans in February argued that the data broker loophole infringes upon the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986:
Ordinarily, these agencies would need a judge-issued warrant before forcing phone or tech companies to turn over their customers’ location data. But creative government lawyers have decided that the Fourth Amendment does not apply to Americans’ sensitive, personal data — if the government buys it from data brokers. The embrace of this legal loophole by government agencies poses a serious threat to Americans’ privacy. It further undoes Congress’s clear intent in protecting precisely this kind of sensitive information through enactment of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986. Location information and other private information about Americans’ lives, including where an American prays, where and when they drive their children to school, and if they have visited a gun store or shooting range.
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“For decades, Congress has legislatively protected gun-owning Americans’ rights. But decades-old privacy laws will continue in name only if the Biden Administration is allowed to continue this brazen surveillance of Americans without court orders,” the lawmakers wrote.
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.