Tell Colorado’s Congressmen, “Support the Repeal of the Patriot Act!” – Liberty Activism

Colorado’s seven Congressmen, and two Senators have an opportunity to stand up for liberty, and reverse one of the worst pieces of legislation of our generation.

Click here to find their phone number.

The Background

Immediately following the September 11, 2001 destruction of the World Trade Center towers in New York City, a variety of “counter-terrorism” legislation was introduced in the US Congress.

As history has shown, the State uses crisis to further their control on society.

The result of these various bills was the Patriot Act, which was signed into law on October 26, 2001.

The great Andrew P. Napolitano explains it’s evil:

“After 9/11, the George W. Bush administration offered the Patriot Act to Congress. It was crafted in secrecy and enacted in infidelity to the Constitution. Members of the House of Representatives had 15 minutes to read is 300+ pages and no time for serious floor debate. The one senator who spoke out against it was driven from office.

Section 505 of the Patriot Act permits federal agents to bypass the requirements of the Fourth Amendment and to issue their own search warrants. Those agent-written warrants are not based on probable cause of crime but rather on a representation by one agent to another of governmental needs — the same lame standard used by the secret London courts that issued writs of assistance.

Since 2001, federal agents have issued more than 300,000 of these search warrants — which they call National Security Letters — to custodians of financial records. In 2004 alone, 56,507 agent-written search warrants were issued. Those custodians include financial institutions, telecom providers, computer service providers, supermarkets, credit card issuers, health care insurers and providers, legal service providers, local and state governments, and even the Post Office.

The very concept of one federal agent authorizing another to seize records is antithetical to the Fourth Amendment and repugnant to the American Revolution.”

Colorado’s 2001 Patriot Act Votes:

Unfortunately, Colorado’s two US Senators in 2001, Wayne Allard, and Ben Nighthorse Campbell, both voted in favor of the legislation.

Among Colorado’s Congressional delegation, two Congressmen voted “No,” and the other four voted “Yes“:

District 1: Diana DeGette voted No (DeGette also voted No on the 2006 renewal vote),

District 2: Mark Udall voted No (Udall voted Yes on the 2006 renewal vote),

District 3: Scott McInnis voted Yes,

District 4: Bob Schaffer voted Yes,

District 5: Joel Hefley voted Yes,

District 6: Tom Tancredo voted Yes.

Since 2001, liberty activists have been been demanding a repeal of this horrendous infringement on our rights.

And phony liberty organizations like the Heritage Foundation have supported this horrendous legislation.

A New Bill to Repeal the Patriot Act

On December 15th, 2020, a bill to Repeal the Patriot Act and the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 (H.R.8970) was introduced by Congressmen Thomas Massie (R-KY), and Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI).

In her press release Rep. Gabbard states:

“The Constitution of the United States guarantees fundamental rights and freedoms for every American — including the right to privacy and protection against illegal search and seizure without probable cause.

Unfortunately, the so-called Patriot Act and FISA Amendments Act allowed the intelligence community to conduct mass surveillance on Americans, collecting information about our phone calls and our emails.”

“Our legislation will repeal these laws and require Congress to strike the right balance between serving our national security interests and protecting our civil liberties and Fourth Amendment rights.”

In the same press release, Rep. Massie states:

“The Patriot Act contains many provisions that violate the Fourth Amendment and have led to a dramatic expansion of our domestic surveillance state.”

“Our Founding Fathers fought and died to stop the kind of warrantless spying and searches that the Patriot Act and the FISA Amendments Act authorize. It is long past time to repeal the Patriot Act and reassert the constitutional rights of all Americans. I am honored to co-sponsor Congresswoman Gabbard’s bill and look forward to working with her on this issue.”

Some of the key points of this legislation mentioned in the press release:

Repeal the PATRIOT Act (which contains provisions allowing for mass telephone metadata collection)

Repeal the FISA Amendments Act (which contains provisions allowing for mass email collection), except for provisions regarding FISA court reporting and WMD intelligence collection.

Makes retaliation against federal national security whistleblowers illegal and provides for the termination of individuals who engage in such retaliation.

Ensure that any FISA collection against a U.S. person can only occur with a valid warrant based on probable cause (which was the original FISA standard from 1978 to 2001).

Retain the ability for government surveillance capabilities to be targeted against a specific non-U.S. person, regardless of the type of communications method(s) or device(s) being used by the subject of the surveillance.

Retain provisions in current law dealing with the acquisition of intelligence information involving weapons of mass destruction from entities not composed primarily of U.S. persons.

Prohibit government-mandated “back doors” in electric devices or software that allow the government to bypass encryption or other privacy technology built into said hardware and/or software.

Increase the terms of judges on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) from seven to ten years and allow their reappointment.

Mandate that the FISC utilize technologically competent technical and legal experts (Special Masters) to help determine the veracity of government claims about privacy, minimization and collection capabilities employed by the U.S. government in FISA applications.

Mandate that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) regularly monitor such domestic surveillance programs for compliance with the law, including responding to Member requests for investigations and whistleblower complaints of wrongdoing.

Explicitly ban the use of Executive Order 12333 as a way of conducting surveillance on U.S. persons or mass collection of information