PPSA Endorses the Subpoena Abuse Prevention Act

​“The Founding Fathers would roll over in their graves if they knew the government was able to demand a list of everyone a person called and texted, everyone who watched a YouTube video or visits a website, or uncover anonymous social media accounts, all without a warrant or court order of any kind.” - Sen. Ron Wyden  

During the Biden administration, Special Counsel Jack Smith obtained the phone records of 20 current or former Republican Members of Congress during the federal probe of Donald Trump. Before that, the Department of Justice under the Trump administration obtained the phone records of two Democratic Members of Congress and 43 congressional staffers from both parties.

Administrations of both parties have held such actions to be perfectly legal, despite their being obvious violations of the Fourth Amendment’s requirement for a probable cause warrant before inspecting our personal information.

“Americans’ constitutional rights should not disappear just because they made a phone call or sent a text,” said Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY). “Yet today, federal agencies can secretly demand your phone records and personal data from tech companies as often as they want without ever stepping inside a courtroom. This kind of unchecked power is something you’d expect under the Chinese Communist Party, not in the U.S.”

“The very term ‘administrative subpoena’ is an oxymoron that is offensive to the Fourth Amendment,” said Bob Goodlatte, PPSA Senior Policy Advisor and former Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. “It avoids judicial oversight and gives the executive branch the ability to make legitimate-sounding demands to inspect our houses, papers, effects, and data, when it is in fact just illicit government overreach.”

To rein in this clearly unconstitutional surveillance practice, Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Cynthia Lummis, along with Reps. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), Thomas Massie (R-KY), Robin Kelly (D-IL), and Eric Burlison (R-MO) released the Subpoena Abuse Prevention Act – a bill that would require the government to go before a judge in order to obtain phone records. It would also prevent the use of subpoenas against phone and tech companies to spy on Americans for engaging in speech or other constitutionally protected activities.

The Subpoena Abuse Prevention Act would:

• Require the government to go before a judge before obtaining phone call records, a standard already required for email records

 

• Require certification under penalty of perjury that subpoenas are for legitimate purposes, and not to monitor speech or other constitutionally protected activities

 

• Prevent the government from using subpoenas for bulk collection – such as getting the name of everyone who downloads an app or watches a YouTube video.

“The laws protecting Americans’ rights aren’t keeping up with advances in government surveillance,” Sen. Wyden said. “This bipartisan, bicameral bill rebalances the scales to protect our constitutional rights against unnecessary intrusion by the federal authorities.”

Goodlatte commended the sponsors of this bill for pushing back against a growing practice that endangers our constitutional rights.
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“PPSA is proud to support this corrective legislation,” he said.