Senate passes USA Freedom Act that reigns in NSA surveillance. New York Times.

Senator Mitch McConnell (R), Senate Majority Leader, opposed the measure. New York Times/European Press Photo Agency. 

President Obama has signed the USA Freedom Act that reigns in NSA surveillance. New York Times. After a bitter fight, and the expiration of certain parts of the Patriot Act, the NSA lost the ability to conduct surveillance through phone metadata. The USA Freedom Act will allow the collection of data to resume but with heavy restrictions on how the data can be collected. Instead of the NSA holding onto phone data, the phone companies will hold on to the data themselves. A court order will be required for the government to access the data. The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) will be forced to publish some of their more important decisions and free speech advocates will be able to argue for privacy in certain cases. The bipartisan legislation is seen as a victory for Rand Paul, who was critical in forcing a decision and a huge defeat for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who was the USA Freedom Act's biggest opponent. 

My Comment:

This is just the beginning. The NSA still has way too much power for my taste and this new legislation does nothing about my biggest concern. The act does nothing to prevent or restrict the monitoring of the internet. Clamping down on the collection of phone metadata is a good thing, but my fear is that my internet data is still being collected. After all, I do a lot more on the internet then I do on my phone... 

This is a vindication of sorts for Edward Snowden. Many people still disagree with what he did. I'm not one of them, but even in the Senate, people realized that the NSA had gone to far. This new act doesn't do as much as Snowden probably would have liked but it is at least a start. He has to be happy right now. At some point he must have asked himself "Is all this worth it?" and I think for now we can say, yes it was. 

It is also a huge blow to the authoritarian wing of the Republican Party. Mitch McConnell and his supporters got a ton of egg on their faces. Rand Paul and the rest of the more libertarian wing of his party outmaneuvered him. And they were able to cross the aisle and work with the Democrats. And as much as I don't like the Democrats political positions, I have to give credit where credit is due. For this issue, they chose the right side. Since I generally identify as a libertarian Republican, I am loving seeing the authoritarian wing of the party get their butts handed to them. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come for both parties. 

As for the senators from my state, both of them opposed NSA surveillance. Ron Johnson (R) voted for the bill, while Tammy Baldwin (D) voted against it. In Baldwin's defense, like Rand Paul, she voted against it because it didn't go far enough. I'm no fan of Baldwin, but again, credit where credit is due. I probably won't vote for her when she is up for re-election, but she has one point in her favor at least. Ron Johnson struck a more moderate tone, saying that he wanted to balance privacy with safety. I think that is at least a respectable position, and a lot more appealing to me then Mitch McConnell's arguments. For a vote by vote list of who voted for what in the Senate check here. Keep in mind 4 Senators, including Baldwin and Paul, voted against it because it didn't go far enough.

I think the focus on the changes to the collection of metadata is not the important part of this legislation. Far more important is the fact that the FISC will have to de-classify some of its decisions. The increase in transparency is a good thing. Not only will we be able to find out what legal justifications the courts made for their decisions, we will be able to challenge them as well. Which could lead to lawsuits, new legislation and more protection for the privacy rights of American citizens. 

Though I think that there is a lot more work to do to protect our privacy rights, this bill is a step in the right direction. More changes will hopefully come in the future. And when they do, I will be writing about it.