Senator Rand PaulVerified account

The Patriot Act was begotten of the most unpatriotic of ideas – that liberty can be exchanged for security. The history of the Patriot Act shows that the exchange is a poor one. As our liberty wanes and wastes away, we find that the promises of security were an illusion.

The history of the Patriot Act is really a history of how power corrupts and how bias and malfeasance grow when power is unchecked. The Patriot Act allowed a secret court, FISA, to grant generalized warrants to collect personal information from millions of Americans.

The spies who run these surveillance programs then lied to us about their extent. One of the most notorious of these liars is James Clapper. When cross-examined by Senator Wyden under oath James Clapper denied that the gov't was collecting personal data on millions of Americans.

The fourth amendment dictates that the government must identify AN INDIVIDUAL, and the ITEMS to be requested and LOCATION to be searched.

The fourth amendment was intended to forbid general warrants or writs of assistance that historically had been abused by monarchs to collect large amounts of personal information and belongings.