As Benjamin Franklin once said, “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
This past Wednesday, my House Judiciary Committee colleagues and I took a big step in restoring this essential liberty. We marked up and sent to the House floor a bill called the Protect Liberty and End Warrantless Surveillance Act. The vast majority of Democrats and Republicans on the committee were able to come together to craft a piece of legislation that safeguards your right not to be spied on while also protecting our national security.
This bill, which I cosponsored, will amend the Foreign Intelligence Security Act (FISA) to ensure that federal officials must get a probable cause warrant before they can view Americans’ communications, increases transparency at the FISA court, and adds significant criminal penalties for anyone who violates Americans’ rights, along with a number of other reforms.
The government cannot continue violating the American people’s rights. We must reform FISA to restore civil liberties. I can assure you that I will do everything in my power to reform this broken system and ensure that your Constitutional rights are protected.
The Week in Weaponized Government
As a frequent reader of this newsletter, you know that the First Amendment is also under assault from the Censorship Industrial Complex. Americans are being censored by their government, and we’re going to do something about it.
As you might remember, I joined Rep. Harriet Hageman in introducing the Censorship Accountability Act earlier this year. As a reminder, this bill will give you the ability to sue any government official found to be violating your First Amendment rights. We are preparing to move this bill as an answer to all the egregious problems the Weaponization Subcommittee has uncovered.
Currently, you can sue state government officials for violating your rights, and you can file limited federal claims, known as Bivens claims, but the First Amendment remains unprotected.
This bill’s importance was driven home this week during a hearing of the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government of the House Judiciary Committee.
Kristen Clarke, the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, was left dumbfounded by my simple question about Missouri v. Biden, the landmark First Amendment case that will be heard by the Supreme Court this term.
She claimed to have no familiarity with the case, which the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals called “the most massive attack on free speech in United State history.” Her response left Members of the committee shocked.
Watch for yourself:
