To: President Donald Trump, The United States House of Representatives, and The United States Senate
Four-month public review of revisions to the Patriot Act - which should be annotated with the vot...
The Patriot Act is a huge piece of legislation. Are members of Congress prepared to say (on the record) whether Patriot Act does, in fact, undermine every American's rights under the US Court System and the US Constitution?
The Patriot Act is scheduled to expire on June 1, 2015. However, revisions (and another extension) is proposed. Allegedly, even the AUTHOR of the Patriot Act didn't think the Patriot Act gave the NSA (or President Obama) permission to do bulk data collection. How CURIOUS. Are members of the House and Senate prepared to state, on the record, why they let bulk data collection go on so long?
Voters need time to review any proposed revisions to the Patriot Act. Voters should also have an opportunity to weigh in on the possibility of simply allowing it to elapse.
During the first month of a proposed 4-month public review period, we ask that each member of the House and Senate (and each member of the Supreme Court) respond on the record to criticisms of the Patriot Act made by:
Bill Moyers (in 2007) - http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal//09072007/watch.html
The issues raised by the case of Smith vs Obama (in 2014) (https://epic.org/amicus/fisa/215/smith/)
Journalists Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald in the documentary CitizenFour
John Oliver (in 2015) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEVlyP4_11M
Why is this important?
The Patriot Act breaks the US Constitution. It breaks the US Court system. It undermines the power of Congress. It sets a precedent where employees of the NSA are allowed to lie to Congress under oath (for example, James Clapper) but ordinary citizens aren't.