Hooray! Republicans renounce unconstitutional invasion of privacy

The Republican National Committee recently shocked the world when they passed a resolution denouncing rampant federal spying on the American people. This is one of many important developments we are seeing in defense of liberty within the conservative movement across the country.

I have to admit it remains unfathomable to me that our federal government has been so blatantly ignoring the people’s rights set forth by law via the U.S. Constitution. Why Washington DC has chosen to spy on every American citizen rather than properly secure the borders to stop would-be terrorists, illegal immigration, and drug runners at the point of entry is bizarre and potentially very dangerous.

But it seems an awakening as to the importance of our Constitution is occurring on a broad scale. Here one of the ground breaking resolutions passed by a large majority at the Republican National Committee winter meeting a few weeks ago:

RESOLUTION TO RENOUNCE THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY’S SURVEILLANCE PROGRAM

WHEREAS, The secret surveillance program called PRISM targets, among other things, the surveillance of communications of U.S. citizens on a vast scale and monitors searching habits of virtually every American on the internet; 

WHEREAS, This dragnet program is, as far as we know, the largest surveillance effort ever launched by a democratic government against its own citizens, consisting of the mass acquisition of Americans’ call details encompassing all wireless and landline subscribers of the country’s three largest phone companies*;

WHEREAS, Every time an American citizen makes a phone call, the NSA gets a record of the location, the number called, the time of the call and the length of the conversation; all of which are an invasion into the personal lives of American citizens that violates the right of free speech and association afforded by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution;

WHEREAS, The mass collection and retention of personal data is in itself contrary to the right of privacy protected by the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution, which guarantees the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures, that warrants shall issue only upon probable cause, and generally prevents the American government from issuing modern-day writs of assistance;

WHEREAS, Unwarranted government surveillance is an intrusion on basic human rights that threatens the very foundations of a democratic society and this program represents a gross infringement of the freedom of association and the right to privacy and goes far beyond even the permissive limits set by the Patriot Act; and

WHEREAS, Republican House Representative Jim Sensenbrenner, an author of the Patriot Act and Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee at the time of Section 215’s passage, called the Section 215 surveillance program “an abuse of that law,” writing that, “based on the scope of the released order, both the administration and the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) court are relying on an unbounded interpretation of the act that Congress never intended;” Therefore be it

RESOLVED, The Republican National Committee encourages Republican lawmakers to enact legislation to amend Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, the state secrets privilege and the FISA Amendments Act to make it clear that blanket surveillance of the Internet activity, phone records and correspondence – electronic, physical, and otherwise - of any person residing in  the U.S. is prohibited by law and that violations can be reviewed in adversarial proceedings before a public court;

RESOLVED, The Republican National Committee encourages Republican law makers to call for a special committee to investigate, report, and reveal to the public the extent of this domestic spying and the committee should create specific recommendations for legal and regulatory reform to end unconstitutional surveillance as well as hold accountable those public officials who are found to be responsible for this unconstitutional surveillance; and 

RESOLVED, The Republican National Committee calls upon Republican lawmakers to immediately take action to halt current unconstitutional surveillance programs and provide a full public accounting of the NSA’s data collection programs.

I will continue to exert my efforts to see that our government follows the U.S. Constitution in protection of your privacy and every other regard. 

If you would like more info, please connect with me at www.jenniferfielder.us or call 406 210-5944.