Steven Holt: “The RESTORE Act, which its well-meaning authors believe will both help protect our liberties and our security, does the…”

“The RESTORE Act, which its well-meaning authors believe will both help protect our liberties and our security, does the latter but, unfortunately, does not fully do the former. If I had more time, I would talk about the good features of this bill, but in the time I have, I would like to point to the one thing that it needs most, that it lacks, which is ironclad language that maintains the fourth amendment's individual warrant requirement when Americans' property or communications are searched and seized by the government. The RESTORE Act would allow the government to collect the communications of innocent Americans. The executive branch assurances that the rights of Americans will be protected through administrative procedures are no substitute for judicial protections. In recent weeks and months, we've seen too many abuses of administrative warrants to find any reassurance or to even find these assurances believable. Yes, I voted ``yes'' in committee to bring this to the floor, with the assurances that we would work to get it better. I regret to say that I've seen no effort to resolve this point. It could be fixed easily to the safety of Americans, because Americans will be safer when agencies have to demonstrate to a court that they know what they are doing. We get better intelligence, just as we get better law enforcement, when you do it by the rules.”