PPSA Joins Civil Liberties Coalition to Brief Congress on Government Surveillance

Congress ostensibly oversees how federal agencies conduct surveillance that could infringe on Americans’ privacy and Fourth Amendment rights. With this in mind, PPSA joined a coalition that includes six other civil liberties organizations in sending a briefing to Members of the 117th Congress advising them to dig deeper into how the government surveils Americans.
 
The coalition warned Congress that, in recent decades, “our government has become comfortable acting in ways that violate the letter and the spirit” of the Fourth Amendment.
 
“For example, the government routinely uses the powers of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, meant to catch foreign spies and their enablers, to watch Americans. It sidesteps warrant requirements through a growing practice of simply purchasing our personal data from data brokers. It deploys new modes of aerial and biometric surveillance in ways that chill the First Amendment rights of Americans to protest and political groups to organize. Relying on secret legal interpretations, it plays verbal games and exploits new technologies to open loopholes in privacy laws that Congress never envisioned. 
 
“Further, there is reason to believe the government may have secretly concluded that intelligence agencies have inherent authority, in the absence of any court order or Congressional authorization, to conduct surveillance on people in the United States.”
 
The coalition added: “As a result, the government has multiple ways to access Americans’ communications and other highly sensitive information without any suspicion of wrongdoing — let alone probable cause and a warrant. Predictably, these tools for warrantless surveillance have been turned on racial, ethnic, and religious minorities, as well as political activists and opponents.” 
 
The briefing points Members of Congress and their staff to upcoming legislative opportunities to restore balance between current government practices and the constitution. The document suggests Congress:

• Close the legal loophole that allows the government to purchase information from private data brokers that it would otherwise need a court order or subpoena to obtain. Legislation to close this loophole, “The Fourth Amendment is Not for Sale Act,” will be offered in the Senate by Sens. Ron Wyden, Mike Lee, Patrick Leahy, Mike Daines and Rand Paul, and in the House by Reps. Jerry Nadler, Warren Davidson, Zoe Lofgren and Andy Biggs.

 

• Strengthen the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and remove impediments to judicial oversight — as provided for in an amendment by Sens. Mike Lee and Patrick Leahy that passed the Senate last year with 77 votes.

 

• Update privacy laws to comply with recent Supreme Court decisions and protect newer forms of highly personal information, such as geolocation data, web browsing and Internet search histories, DNA and other forms of biometric information.

 

• Eliminate the government’s ability to engage in “bulk collection” or otherwise collect sensitive data without any individualized suspicion of wrongdoing.

 

• Ensure that foreign intelligence surveillance, whether conducted inside or outside the United States, cannot be used as an end-run around the Fourth Amendment by providing warrantless access to Americans’ communications.

 

• Get straight answers from the executive branch about how it is using the legal authorities Congress has provided, as well as whether it believes it has “inherent authority” to conduct surveillance on the American people.

 
Other coalition organizations that developed this document include the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans for Prosperity, the Brennan Center for Justice, Demand Progress, Free Press Action and FreedomWorks.
 
The coalition plans to follow up with webinars on these issues for Members of Congress and their staff.