Right now, President Trump and Stephen Miller are pressuring Congress to reauthorize a dangerous surveillance program that the Trump administration has repeatedly used to spy on Americans without a warrant.
Just two weeks ago, Congress unsuccessfully tried to force through a bill in the dead of night that would have quietly renewed Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and given the government the power to conduct mass warrantless surveillance for another five years.
This law has been abused time and time again to target and spy on protestors, members of Congress, and journalists. One NSA analyst even used it to spy on the women he matched with on dating apps.
At the same time, government officials have found another way to dodge the Fourth Amendment – avoiding warrant requirements to obtain our data by using taxpayer dollars to buy our information directly from third-party brokers who aren’t held to the Constitution’s protections.
But we don’t live in a surveillance state. If our government wants our emails, phone calls, or text messages, the Fourth Amendment requires them to go to court and get a warrant, not rely on some shadowy authority that has been misused countless times.
Some members want us to believe that violating our Fourth Amendment rights is necessary if we want to keep our country safe from the “bad guys.” But this fearmongering won’t work. After nearly 20 years of bad law, Congress must reverse course.
Thanks for your action,
Kia Hamadanchy
Pronouns: He, him, his
Senior Policy Counsel, ACLU
American Civil Liberties Union
125 Broad Street, 18th Floor
New York, NY 10004, USA