NSA Scandal: Paul Introduces 4th Amendment Restoration Act

NSA Scandal: Paul Introduces 4th Amendment Restoration Act

on Thu, 6 Jun 2013

Once patriots were called on to defend our Constitutional rights. Today, we are called on to reinstate them. In the wake of the latest Obama scandal, i.e. the seizure of phone records for millions of Americans, Sen. Rand Paul has introduced legislation to "restore" the 4th Amendment. That Amendment, for well over 200 years, has protected Americans from unreasonable searches from the government. That protection was nice while it lasted.

“The revelation that the NSA has secretly seized the call records of millions of Americans, without probable cause, represents an outrageous abuse of power and a violation of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution." Sen. Paul said in a statement. "I have long argued that Congress must do more to restrict the Executive’s expansive law enforcement powers to seize private records of law-abiding Americans that are held by a third-party.”

“When the Senate rushed through a last-minute extension of the FISA Amendments Act late last year, I insisted on a vote on my amendment (SA 3436) to require stronger protections on business records and prohibiting the kind of data-mining this case has revealed," Paul continued. "Just last month, I introduced S.1037, the Fourth Amendment Preservation and Protection Act, which would provide exactly the kind of protections that, if enacted, could have prevented these abuses and stopped these increasingly frequent violations of every American’s constitutional rights.

“The bill restores our Constitutional rights and declares that the Fourth Amendment shall not be construed to allow any agency of the United States government to search the phone records of Americans without a warrant based on probable cause,” Sen. Paul concluded. 

Last month, Paul's bill was to "protect" the 4th Amendment. Today, the legislation is to "restore" it. I don't think that's the change most Americans signed up for with Obama.