 U.S. Congresswoman-elect Anna Paulina Luna speaking with attendees at the 2022 AmericaFest at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona. Photo credit: Greg Skidmore Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) recently introduced the American Privacy Restoration Act, which would fully repeal the USA Patriot Act, the surveillance law hurriedly passed in 2001 shortly after the 9/11 attacks. Rep. Luna declared: “For over two decades, rogue actors within our U.S. intelligence agencies have used the Patriot Act to create the most sophisticated, unaccountable surveillance apparatus in the Western world. My legislation will strip the deep state of these tools and protect every American’s Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures. It’s past time to rein in our intelligence agencies and restore the right to privacy. Anyone trying to convince you otherwise is using ‘security’ as an excuse to erode your freedom.” What is so wrong about the Patriot Act? Judge Andrew Napolitano spells it out in a recent piece in The Washington Times. Judge Napolitano writes: “Among the lesser-known holes in the Constitution cut by the Patriot Act in 2001 was the destruction of the ‘wall’ between federal law enforcement and federal spies. The wall was erected in the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, which statutorily limited all federal domestic spying to that which the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court authorized. “The wall was intended to prevent law enforcement from accessing and using data gathered by America’s domestic spying agencies … “In the last year of the Biden Administration, the FBI admitted that during the first Trump Administration, it intentionally used the CIA and the National Security Agency to spy on Americans about whom the FBI was interested but as to whom it had neither probable cause of crime nor even articulable suspicion of criminal behavior …” Even if Rep. Luna’s bill to repeal the Patriot Act does not pass, reform is still possible. Judge Napolitano writes: “With a phone call, President Trump, who was personally victimized by this domestic spying 10 years ago, can stop all domestic spying without search warrants. He can re-erect the wall between spying and law enforcement.” Comments are closed.
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