Thomas Massie: “Some of my colleagues today will offer a bill to reauthorize the PATRIOT Act. It will have the thin varnish of reform on…”

“Some of my colleagues today will offer a bill to reauthorize the PATRIOT Act. It will have the thin varnish of reform on it, designed to whitewash the egregious constitutional violations that have been going on, but it is the Americans who are going to be shellacked by this legislation and the process used to pass it. I want to read the Fourth Amendment and part of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution here today on the floor. ``The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.'' The Fifth Amendment says: Nor shall any person be ``deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.'' So, let's think about some of these words because they are being treated as if they are curse words or dirty words today. Warrant, due process, probable cause, these are all things that are guaranteed as rights for all Americans in the Constitution, and none of those can be guaranteed without transparency. We can't have star chambers and kangaroo courts. This has to happen in daylight, and it has to be reviewable by the people in order to know that these things are true. These things, they are inconvenient, a warrant, due process, probable cause. They are inconvenient for investigators.…”