Sen. Merkley (D-OR) End Secret Law

I received this email today from Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Or). I agree with Sen Merkley as he believes "kind of dragnet is a breach of Americans' privacy and contrary to our founding values." Damn right it is!


Dear (neverforget),

The recent revelations that the National Security Agency is engaging in massive, secret bulk data collection of Americans' phone records finally bring out in the open a program that is incredibly disturbing. The government is sweeping up detailed information about all of our phone calls into an enormous database without our knowledge or permission. I think this kind of dragnet is a breach of Americans' privacy and contrary to our founding values.

Equally disturbing, though, is that the legal interpretations governing this vast program are made in secret and kept from the public. This secrecy seriously limits public debate around our surveillance programs.

The language of the law can be quite different from the court's interpretation. For instance, the standard in the law for record collections is that the records must be "relevant to an authorized investigation" – quite different from the court's apparent interpretation of all phone records, all the time, all across the U.S.

For the public to truly be able to weigh in on whether Congress is striking the right balance between privacy and security, they need to know how the courts are interpreting the laws Congress writes. We can and should have this policy debate without divulging how surveillance takes place and tipping off our enemies. I've introduced a bipartisan bill that would require the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to declassify significant opinions that oversee programs such as this, and have also called on the Administration to do the same.

The debate around our privacy and our constitutional rights is far too important to be kept in the dark. Americans deserve the chance to weigh in and make their voices heard when Congress is authorizing these laws – and that means understanding the real-world impact of the laws that are being debated. I'll keep fighting to make our surveillance laws more transparent and give concerned Americans the right to weigh in.

All my best,

Jeffrey A. Merkley
United States Senator