PPSA OPINION: The Patriot Act Goes Too Far

​Section 215 needs major reforms to safeguard core American liberties
​from government overreach.

To keep America safe, does the Federal Bureau of Investigation really need almost unfettered access to Americans’ health records, DNA test results, and even private conversations overheard by digital assistants like Alexa and Siri? News broke earlier this month that the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court had admonished the FBI for illegally spying on Americans tens of thousands of times. The court’s reprimand of the FBI’s “unduly lax” treatment of foreign surveillance powers—meant for spies and terrorists—raises equally pressing concerns about its domestic surveillance authority.
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When we supported Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which will expire Dec. 15 if it isn’t reauthorized, we trusted the FBI and other agencies to act responsibly in accessing the domestic records of large U.S. businesses to counter national-security threats. But the security agencies appear to have abused Section 215 nearly as often as their foreign surveillance authority. Their broad interpretation of that statute has gone well beyond Congress’s original understanding—and common sense. 

​This was apparent during a Sept. 18 House Judiciary Committee hearing on the...

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