The Patriot Act & so-called "Freedom Act"

"The so-called Freedom Act would actually legitimize all spying all the time on all of us in ways that the Patriot Act fails to do. It is no protection of privacy; it is no protection of constitutional liberty...utter disregard of the Fourth Amendment."

A decision last week about NSA spying by a panel of judges on the United States Court of Appeals in New York City sent shock waves through the government. The court ruled that a section of the Patriot Act that is due to expire at the end of this month and on which the government has relied as a basis for its bulk acquisition of telephone data in the past 14 years does not authorize that acquisition. This may sound like legal mumbo jumbo, but it goes to the heart of the relationship between the people and their government in a free society.

Here is the backstory and the latest.

xrepublic.tv...

"The Patriot Act has purported to do away with the search warrant requirement by employing language so intentionally vague that the government can interpret it as it wishes. Add to this the secret venue for this interpretation—the FISA court to which the Patriot Act directs that NSA applications for authority to spy on Americans are to be made—and you have the totalitarian stew we have been force-fed since October 2001."

"The feds argued to the secret court that they were entitled to any phone call data they wanted—usually sought by area code or zip code or the customer base of telecom service providers—so long as they claimed to need it to search for communications about terror-related activities, and they claimed they needed everyone's records, and they claimed the Patriot Act authorized this."

a reply to: wasaka

Orwellian Society was ushered in (unofficially) with the passing of the Patriot Act.

But now, with NDAA and this poorly-named "Freedom Act", we are officially seeing the dawn of a new era for society. And not something that makes me feel safer in any way

a reply to: FamCore

It's designed to give those who have proven in every way, many times over that they cannot be trusted - yet they insist we can trust them.

As a society, we practically shun and judge people we find out have committed crimes, yet we have politicians who do this very thing and yet they some how skirt punishment many times.

They are supposed to be subject to the same laws we are - yet are some how immune from most prosecution. What's wrong with this picture?

Despite the things that brought to public light, they keep breaking laws and more - and we are paying them for it!!

Not happy with this draconian marxist crap....do people realize that the PEOPLE have the power to stop them!!?

This.... this passed.

I've not heard much about it- what's up with that?

The title of the act is a ten-letter backronym (USA FREEDOM) that stands for "Uniting and Strengthening America by Fulfilling Rights and Ending Eavesdropping, Dragnet-collection and Online Monitoring Act."

I'll have to go track the darn thing down and read it myself. My guess is it does none of the things in the title.