Marshall Sanford: “Last week a federal appeals court declared that the NSA's bulk data collection on American citizens over the past 14…”

“Last week a federal appeals court declared that the NSA's bulk data collection on American citizens over the past 14 years was illegal. So why is Congress considering a bill that would legalize a program already deemed illegal? Unfortunately, that is what the USA FREEDOM Act does, and I believe codifies a program that violates the Constitution. When the Fourth Amendment says that the American people have the right to be free from warrantless searches and seizures of themselves and their property, I think it's a pretty clear statement on the limits of governmental action. Unfortunately, the bill today does not fully protect that right and accordingly I don't support it. The bill's purpose was to rein in the NSA's bulk data collection program but failed on that front, and I wanted to offer a few thoughts as to why. First, the bill uses broad language to define who and what the government can search, which means that it still could technically collect Americans' information in bulk--just not as much as before. The bill does this by leaving the door open for the government to search geographic regions instead of the entire country as it does now. For example, the government could require phone companies to turn over all the records of their customers in South Carolina or even in a town like Mt. Pleasant in my district.…”