Senate Candidate Amy Klobuchar, 2006:

"I would have advocated for changes to the Patriot Act, including provisions that protect libraries from government searches. With those changes, I would have voted for the renewal of the Patriot Act. In the future, however, I will advocate for additional protections for civil liberties".

Will Senator Amy Klobuchar keep her promise and advocate for changes to the Patriot Act? Will Senator Klobuchar keep her promise and advocate for additional protections for civil liberties?

So far, it’s not looking good.

On October 1, 2009 Amy Klobuchar had two opportunities to advocate for additional civil liberty protections in the Patriot Act. Senator Klobuchar is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, a body which is currently marking up legislation to renew warrantless surveillance authority under the Patriot Act for yet another four years. When Senator Patrick Leahy introduced a substitute amendment that weakened civil liberties protections, Senator Klobuchar could have objected. After all, Senators Russell Feingold and Richard Durbin did. But Senator Klobuchar didn’t object to the substitute amendment. Instead, she was a cosponsor of the substitute amendment. Rather than advocate for stronger protections for civil liberties under the Patriot Act, Amy Klobuchar advocated for weaker civil liberties protections. Thanks to her “help,” the substitute amendment prevailed and civil liberties protections were weakened.

Senator Klobuchar had another chance to advocate for civil liberties protections under the Patriot Act later in the day, when Dick Durbin introduced an amendment to limit Patriot Act powers to their original boundaries: going after the terrorists. In remarks that day, Dick Durbin revealed that 90% of Patriot Act sneak-and-peek surveillance operations occur in cases having nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism. Durbin’s amendment would have restricted the warrantless use of the Patriot Act to targets who were suspected of either terrorism or spying on America for another country. That way, the War On Terror could continue without eroding Americans’ civil liberties in other domains.

Did Amy Klobuchar keep her promise to “advocate for additional protections for civil liberties” in Patriot Act reforms? No. She didn’t utter a word in support of Durbin’s reasonable amendment. What’s more, when the Durbin amendment came up for a roll-call vote, she voted AGAINST it.

In short, twice in one day Amy Klobuchar broke her campaign promise to advocate for additional civil liberties protections in the Patriot Act. But that’s not the end of the story. On Thursday, October 8, the Senate Judiciary Committee will meet again to complete markup of a Patriot Act reauthorization bill. In this meeting, Senator Klobuchar has another chance to keep her promise and add civil liberties protections under the Patriot Act.

If you care about civil liberty in the United States, and if you are a Minnesota constituent of Senator Klobuchar’s, give her a call to let her know how important it is to you that she keep her promise to Minnesotans and keep her Oath of Office to “support and defend the Constitution.”

Call Senator Klobuchar’s DC office at (202) 224-3244, or her Minnesota office at (218) 287-2219. It will help to be as specific as possible with her staff. Explain that you’d like to see Amy Klobuchar:

1. Support efforts to add the civil liberties protections contained in S. 1686 (the JUSTICE Act).

2. Ensure that national security letters and other warrantless surveillance programs used against Americans are at limited to cases having to do with terrorism.

3. Act to restrict “John Doe” roving wiretaps so that they are no longer anonymous, but rather authorized against specific people as the 4th Amendment requires.

Your call today can help restore civil liberties in America. Help Senator Klobuchar keep her promise.