An effort by Sen. Rand Paul to forbid warrantless investigation of citizens was soundly defeated.
An attempt by Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.) to completely end the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court’s authority to approve warrantless surveillance of Americans went down in flames this afternoon in a blowout 11–85 vote. The Senate subsequently passed a bill that renewed some of these powers with more modest reforms.
Paul’s legislation was essentially a Hail Mary pass: It would have forbidden the feds from targeting American citizens with any of the surveillance, wiretapping, and data collection tools authorized by the FISA court. The National Security Agency and the FBI would instead have to go through traditional federal courts and get a warrant. (The court could still allow surveillance of foreign targets.)
Prior to the vote, Paul took to the Senate floor to argue that the law has been woefully abused and twisted to target Americans, taking note that the FISA court had been specifically designed to make sure the FBI was not secretly surveilling Americans for engaging in protected or political speech. He said that the investigation of former Donald Trump aide Carter Page demonstrated that the FISA court «was manipulated and lied to» to get permission to wiretap Page.
«We should all be appalled at this abuse of power,» Paul said. He argued that the FISA court denies Americans their Fourth Amendment protections, noting that surveillance targets aren’t informed of the warrant submission and aren’t allowed legal representation at a hearing.
