Digital Bill of Rights - May 2016

Today, the House will likely pass their bill, the USA FREEDOM Act, to reform and reauthorize the controversial Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act. This portion of the 2001 law was revealed by Edward Snowden to be the legal justification for the massive, nearly limitless collection of American citizens’ telephone metadata by the NSA. Unfortunately, this year's USA Freedom Act as currently conceived is weaker than previous versions.

As one of our more than 6.9 million FreedomWorks members nationwide, I urge you to contact your representative and ask him or her to support the End Warrantless Surveillance of Americans Act, H.R. 2233. Introduced by Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), and Thomas Massie (R-KY), this bill would take huge strides towards curtailing the government’s ability to access to Americans’ electronic communications without a warrant.

In an era of judicial activism and a lot of nonsense talk about “a living document,” it’s refreshing to see that there are still some Courts interested in upholding the Constitution and defending the freedoms outlined in the Bill of Rights.

Today, the House Judiciary Committee voted on the bipartisan Poe-Lofgren Amendment to the USA Freedom Act, a bill intended to reduce to reduce warrantless spying on American citizens. The Amendment offered two desperately needed improvements to the bill. The first would have prevented the government from searching through “incidentally collected data” without a specific warrant except in emergency situations. The second would forbid the government from requesting or mandating that manufacturers include “back doors” in their products to allow for surveillance of the users.

As one of our more than 6.9 million FreedomWorks members nationwide, I urge you to contact the members of the House Judiciary Committee today and ask them to support the Poe-Lofgren Amendment to the USA FREEDOM Act to limit NSA spying.

Set to expire at the end of May, Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act is only one of a number of authorities the government uses to defy the 4th Amendment and spy on millions of Americans without a direct warrant. Nevertheless, its upcoming sunset date provides defenders of liberty a strong chance to make serious move back towards our founders’ intention that:

The National Security Agency rolled out a website for kids featuring nine anthropomorphic characters and games and activities aimed at teaching children about gathering signals intelligence. There's even a link that directs high school and college students to information about programs at the NSA, as well as what careers are available at the controversial agency.

Jeb Bush continues to defend the National Security Agency's unconstitutional domestic spying program, telling a conservative talk show host that this gross encroachment on the Fourth Amendment is the "best part of the Obama administration."

As one of our over 6.9 million FreedomWorks members nationwide, I urge you to contact your representative and ask him or her to vote NO on both the Protecting Cyber Networks Act (H.R. 1560) and the National Cybersecurity Protection Advancement Act (H.R. 1731).

You’ve seen it a thousand times in movies, on police dramas, in any media dealing with crime and punishment. The police show up at a suspect’s house demanding entry, only to have the occupant retort, “Come back when you’ve got a warrant.”