- Apr 24, 2013
- 1,200
Fifteen months after Edward Snowden provided the first documents describing the startling scope of the National Security Agency's spying program, Congress has returned from August recess with a chance to vote on surveillance reform. Unfortunately, if the surveillance vote doesn't happen in the coming weeks, it might not happen at all.
Sen. Patrick Leahy's reformed USA Freedom Act, a bill that would begin to rein in the NSA's domestic surveillance program, is the best chance we have to make surveillance reform a reality in 2014. It has undergone multiple changes since it was first proposed a year ago. In its current compromise form, the bill still only begins to protect the many privacy rights that have been compromised by excessive surveillance. Nonetheless, if passed, it will be a crucial first step towards upholding Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches, while simultaneously reinforcing our counterterrorism efforts by making surveillance more strategic and evidence-based.
Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/opini...eform-senate-usa-freedom-act-column/15662427/
