Maurice Hinchey: “throughout the course of our history, the most respected and revered Americans have consistently warned us that the…”

“throughout the course of our history, the most respected and revered Americans have consistently warned us that the greatest threat facing our country was not external but internal. We could not be conquered from abroad, but we do have the capacity to erode what constitutes this country from within. By doing so, we would place ourselves in deep jeopardy; and that is what we see happening here today. We see the erosion of the basic principles of this country, the rule of law based upon our Constitution. This bill that is before the House now is contrary to the fourth amendment of our Constitution. It provides for illegal surveillance. And when that Constitution was written, it was written based upon the experience of people who saw the effects of these kinds of dictatorial policies in other places around the world. And that is what we are now introducing to our own country. We have so-called conservative Republicans who are refusing to conserve the basic principles and elements of the Constitution. And the most important part of that document, of course, is the first ten amendments, the Bill of Rights, and what we are seeing here is the erosion of the fourth amendment. This bill is contrary to every basic principle of our country. If we pass this legislation, we are opening up new opportunities for an increasingly despotic administration to continue to erode the basic freedoms and liberties of the American people.”