Massive Public Outcry Sends Clear Message to US Congress Seeking to Expand Spying on Americans

In a stunning display of watchdog vigilance and people power amplified by power of X (formerly Twitter), the US Congress and government’s perpetual war and spying machine was sent a very clear message from the American public on Tuesday: Uphold the US Constitution you were sworn to protect.

After a public uproar, the House of Representatives was forced to pull the offending bill and a last-minute Senate vote was held today on a motion to reject a surveillance-increasing measure of the government’s new Defense Bill. Nevertheless, the motion narrowly failed, as 65 Senators ignored the 'memo' and the letter of the law of the land: the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Background

Monday morning on X, Elizabeth Goitein, Co-director of the Liberty & National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, raised the alarm over a pending trojan horse FISA Reauthorization Bill that she said would result in “the biggest expansion of surveillance inside the United States since the Patriot Act.” 

By 3pm on Tuesday, December 12, Goitein’s post had been viewed over 9 million times and reposted by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden who has over 5.7 million X followers. The offending bill, previously scheduled for a vote, was pulled from the House floor in a dramatic turn of events driven by the power of Twitter/X and outrage over the Government’s post-9/11 trampling of the 4th Amendment, which protects against unreasonable search and seizure. 

Monday evening on System Update, Senator Mike Lee explained that the FISA Reform and Reauthorization Act (FRRA) of 2023 would extend FISA powers an unprecedented 9 years and leave untouched the unconstitutional warrantless spying apparatus that leading civil rights groups have sought to end each time FISA comes up for renewal.

Independent Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. tweeted Tuesday, “As President, I’ll veto any legislation that expands government surveillance powers over Americans.”

Critical Context

Three months ago, President Biden signed the “National Emergency with Respect to Certain Terrorist Attacks” as every president had done annually since 2001. The bill gives his administration the right to invoke any of the 136 extraordinary Emergency Powers granted by Congress.

The 9/11 attacks led to the approval of the PATRIOT ACT and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), enabling the largest expansion of government surveillance in the nation’s history. When it was first exposed in 2005, then-president George W. Bush was excoriated for unconstitutional spying on Americans without a warrant. 

Both President Barack Obama and Donald Trump Jr. have since renewed the FISA program just as they continued the post-9/11 National (now perpetual) Emergency. Reauthorization this year has prompted intense debate and calls for reform. 

Responding to a question on X regarding the Patriot Act in August, Kennedy said, “Elites are turning the ideal of transparency on its head to justify mass surveillance… I will respect your privacy. The people should surveil the government, not the other way around.”

Section 504 of the Reauthorization Bill would vastly expand the warrantless domestic spying apparatus by giving the federal government the power to compel small American businesses, such as cafes or hotels with wifi, to become, in effect, agents of US intelligence, as Senator Lee explained. Critics claim that Section 504 inserts a trojan horse in the form of a change of definition that would require any public facing internet “service provider” to provide intelligence agencies full access to any of their customers’ data. 

After the Senate voted today, December 13, to authorize the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the House of Representatives will have the final say tomorrow with a ⅔ majority required for it to pass.

Speaking with System Update host Glenn Greenwald, Representative Thomas Massie said there’s a genuine opportunity for reforms that would curb warrantless domestic spying. He explained that “Jim Jordan is the chair of the Judiciary Committee… And for the first time now, we have a chairman who cares about this issue. He's motivated to change it." Massie added that there is broad Democrat support for curtailing domestic surveillance as well, which was reflected today in the Senate’s vote.

The Project for Privacy & Surveillance Accountability was also very active in bringing pressure on Congress. They wrote, “The world being aflame is no excuse to add our civil liberties and Fourth Amendment protections to the fire. Section 702 must be reformed. Warrantless surveillance of Americans must end. The time has come for Congress to fix FISA.”

In another post they wrote, “Requiring a warrant is about upholding the Fourth Amendment, not undermining national security. Both can & must coexist. Congress must fix FISA and not pass a 702 extension via NDAA [National Defense Authorization Act]. 

Elizabeth Goitein’s alert X post, Edward Snowden’s repeated repostings, and Glenn Greenwald’s timely reporting helped spark a deluge of calls to Congressional switchboards and sent a very clear message to the nation’s representatives: Defend the 4th Amendment and uphold the U.S. Constitution you were sworn to protect. Further, this snapshot of vibrant life on X, coming in the wake of Elon Musk’s taking over the platform demonstrates the real power of people, independent media and government watchdogs active on this now maverick social network.