Former House Judiciary Chair. Bob Goodlatte Availability: “What Legal Authority Governs Surveillance Today? The Truth Is, Not Even Congress Is Allowed to Know”

MEDIA AVAILABILITY                                                     
March 15-20, 2021

Contact: Laura McMenamin
[email protected] (pf)
(703) 887-3988

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Bob Goodlatte, who represented Virginia’s 6th Congressional District for 13 terms and served as Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, is available to discuss the possibility of mass surveillance of people in the United States without Congressional authorization or a court order.
 
Former Rep. Goodlatte, a Republican, along with former Sen. Mark Udall, who represented Colorado as a Democrat, are vocally supporting a lawsuit by Demand Progress Education Fund and the Project for Privacy and Surveillance Accountability filed against the Department of Justice. These two civil liberties organizations seek to compel the government to disclose whether it is conducting secret mass surveillance.
 
“What legal authority governs surveillance today?” Goodlatte asked. “The truth is, not even Congress is allowed to know. We do know that those in government and their defenders have sometimes claimed that they have an ‘inherent’ power to surveil Americans.”
 
The state of domestic intelligence surveillance is unclear with the expiration of Section 215 – which expired a year ago today – known as the “business records provision” of the PATRIOT Act.
 
A media release from the two organizations details the issue.
 
A recent op-ed by Mr. Goodlatte and Mr. Udall outlines their broader concerns.
 
Mr. Goodlatte now serves as Senior Policy Director of the non-partisan Project for Privacy and Surveillance Accountability (PPSA).
 
Former chairman Goodlatte is available for interviews from March 15 to March 20.
 
For more information about PPSA, visit protectprivacynow.org.