“I think there’s probably a stronger sense that the civil liberties concerns are less likely to be triggered by Obama administration activities than the Bush administration activities.” – Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, explaining why Senate Democrats passed reauthorization of the Patriot Act. A single Senator’s objection is all that is required to force a [...]

Name of 111th Congress bill calling for formal investigative commission regarding illegal surveillance, search and seizure of Americans’ private phone records: H.R. 104 Number of new cosponsors of H.R. 104 in Congress after revelations last week that the FBI both lied and broke the law to seize Americans’ phone records: Zero There’s not much else [...]

In the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Richard Durbin just offered an amendment to S. 1692, a bill reauthorizing Patriot Act surveillance powers. It would have only required that when national security letters (NSLs) are issued without constitutional warrants, they have to be limited to surveillance of those who are suspected terrorists, suspected spies, or people [...]

This morning, a visitor to the website franken.senate.gov will encounter a canned message: “Sorry, the web page you have requested is experiencing technical difficulties.” Senator Al Franken is upgrading his web page from a canned, stand-in version (the one all new senators get) to a new, fully-formed and customized web page. As he warms to [...]

I’ve just gotten off the phone with a staffer at the majority office of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and I’ve been told that in tomorrow morning’s markup meeting, the Senate Judiciary Committee will indeed consider the provisions of Senator Russell Feingold‘s JUSTICE Act (S. 1686) when it works to finalize a bill regarding warrantless surveillance [...]

Last week, ten Senators introduced legislation that would begin to undo the damage to constitutional liberty inflicted by the USA Patriot Act of 2001 and the FISA Amendments Act of 2008. S. 1686, given the acronym of the JUSTICE Act, is a long bill; the following is a summary of its most central provisions: Revisions [...]

It’s been six weeks now since a single member of Congress added his or her cosponsorship to H.R. 104, a bill to create an independent commission to investigate instances of torture and illegal surveillance by the United States government and report to Congress with the results. The momentum for such a commission, long weak, now [...]

n/a* * despite brouhaha over warrantless wiretapping, no such bills exist

Did you know that U.S. agents can seize your laptop, your pda, your cell phone or just about any other device that holds your personal data? Did you know that if you’re crossing into or out of the United States, U.S. agents have declared the right take your electronic gear and data from you without [...]

In Illinois’ 5th Congressional District, Rahm Emanuel is running for re-election as a member of the Democratic Party. But Rep. Emanuel has a problem — a constitution problem. You see, on June 20 2008, Emanuel violated his Oath of Office in he solemnly swore to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America and [...]