Stopping Warrantless Data Gathering on Citizens

Sen. Rand Paul will argue in a lawsuit to be filed today that warrantless data gathering of citizens' information is a 4th Amendment violation, reports Bridget Johnson @ pjmedia.com. In an unrelated article at USA Today, law professor Glenn Reynolds argues that it is also a serious threat to constitutional government and separation of powers.

Joined by former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and FreedomWorks president Matt Kibbe, "Paul will file his lawsuit on Wednesday morning at the U.S. District Court in D.C. ... against Obama, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Director of the National Security Agency Keith Alexander and FBI Director James Comey."

“This class action suit isn’t about Republican versus Democrat, or progressive versus conservative. This is about defending the basic civil liberties of every American from a government that has crossed the line. FreedomWorks is participating in this suit on behalf of our community of 6 million citizens nationwide, along with any American who has a phone,” Kibbe said. “If you use a phone, you should care about this case. Never in American history has there been such a warrantless gathering of citizens information. We believe it is time to put this before the courts. ”

Paul, Cuccinelli and Kibbe are expected to discuss their case in greater detail on the steps of the courthouse tomorrow after filing the lawsuit.

Under the subtitle, "the program makes it easy for the president to spy on and blackmail his enemies," University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds writes that "the ability of the executive branch to snoop on the phone calls of people in the other branches isn't just a threat to privacy, but a threat to the separation of powers and the Constitution." He argues that strong measures should be put into place to prevent these abuses.

Rather than counting on leakers to protect us, we need strong structural controls that don't depend on people being heroically honest or unusually immune to political temptation, two characteristics not in oversupply among our political class. That means that the government shouldn't be able to spy on Americans without a warrant — a warrant that comes from a different branch of government, and requires probable cause. The government should also have to keep a clear record of who was spied on, and why, and of exactly who had access to the information once it was gathered. We need the kind of extensive audit trails for access to information that, as the Edward Snowden experience clearly illustrates, don't currently exist.

In addition, we need civil damages — with, perhaps, a waiver of governmental immunities — for abuse of power here. Perhaps we should have bounties for whistleblowers, too, to help encourage wrongdoing to be aired.

Is this strong medicine? Yes. But widespread spying on Americans is a threat to constitutional government. That is a serious disease, one that demands the strongest of medicines.

Rand Paul Suing President Obama, Bridget Johnson, PJMedia.com, 2/11/14
NSA Spying Undermines Separation of Powers, Glenn Harlan Reynolds, USA Today, 2/11/14