Senate Introduces Its Version Of USA Freedom Act; Greatly Improved, But Could Still Be Better
from the a-step-in-the-right-direction dept
As was widely expected, Senator Patrick Leahy has introduced the new Senate version of the USA Freedom Act. As you recall, there was a semi-decent bill in the House that had made it pretty far, before being completely gutted by the White House. From what we've heard, the Senate has been negotiating with the White House pretty intensely over the past month or so, and has taken a stance that it would not give in the way the House did. The end result is a much stronger bill than what the House passed -- and one that actually would block some of the NSA's more nefarious activities. As Access notes, there is much to like about the new bill, which is almost as good as the original USA Freedom Act in the House from last fall.That's not to say it's perfect. As with the original USA Freedom Act, the reforms only go so far, and it leaves much to be desired. There are also some big and dangerous loopholes that are quite problematic. As some have noted, there's some good, bad and ugly in the bill.
However, if this bill moves forward it still would be a very big step forward and a significant effort to push back on the intelligence community's domestic surveillance efforts. There's still a process that it needs to go through, including getting approved by the full Senate (the rumor is it may skip the whole committee markup/approval process), and then getting reconciled with the House version (oh, yeah, and getting the President to sign it). Anywhere along the way, there may be efforts to water it down, as happened with the House bill. However, given all the negotiations that we've heard went into this, there's at least some belief that something very close to what was introduced today has a real chance -- and that's a good thing. This bill also has strong bipartisan support, including support by some powerful Senators who rarely agree on much. That's a good sign.
Even if you think -- as we do -- that much more needs to be done, there are reasons to support this bill as a stepping stone in the right direction and real pushback on the ability of the NSA to do mass surveillance.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: nsa, patrick leahy, senate, surveillance, usa freedom act, white house
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
*NSA thugs wave from the other side showing pic of family*
Senator: On second thoughts let us change this and that.
*forwards watered down version*
*NSA thugs smile in approval*
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Seriously, screw these guys!
It was never constitutional for NSA to do what it has been doing, but fuck that noise... lets fuck this over some more, and pass some more meaningless laws doing nothing to solve the problem.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Seriously, screw these guys!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Seriously, screw these guys!
Is their damn JOBS!
Only 1 court has the power to over rule and that is SCOTUS.
Every other Court can be struck down by the Legislature if they try to jimmydick them and rule something unconstitutional.
Otherwise... the job of determining what is and is not Constitutional is the domain of the "LAW CREATING BRANCH OF GOVERNMENT"! SCOTUS and POTUS are there with power to overrule for when they fuck it up like they have been doing it for the past several decades leading idiots like YOU into stupidity!
If you knew jack and shit about your history and government you would know its 3 equal branches... not 1 with privileges and benefits.
Any branch can be over ruled if the other 2 press against it, and every other court lower than SCOTUS can be steam rolled by Congress if they actually wanted to!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Seriously, screw these guys!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Seriously, screw these guys!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Punishments?
They will just keep on doing their bulk data collection because there are no consequences.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Which would you pay attention to?
'Or what?'
'Or... umm... I'll have to tell you to stop it again...'
'Yeah, that's what we though, have fun with that.'
OR
'Now you need to stop that, because it's illegal!'
'Or what?'
'Or we'll throw everyone that does it in prison for a couple of decades, where you can have a nice chat with the higher-ups who ordered it, and who are already there.'
'Good answer, we'll stop now.'
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Gee, thanks!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]