Patriot Act author to NSA: Rein it in

Sensenbrenner brief says vast spying on all Americans never intended

A legal brief filed on behalf of the author of the original USA Patriot Act challenges the National Security Agency’s interpretation that the law allows vast spying authority, contending that it never was intended to allow the collection of records of telephone calls of all Americans.  The amicus brief filed on behalf of Rep. James Sensenbrenner Jr., R-Wis., was filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation of San Francisco.

It was submitted in a case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of New York and others against James Clapper, chief of national intelligence for President Obama, NSA director Keith Alexander, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and others.  It explains that Sensenbrenner has represented Wisconson’s 5th Congressional District since 1978, and he’s been on the House Judiciary Committee for years.

“Most pertinent to the above-captioned action, Rep. Sensenbrenner was the author of the USA Patriot Act. Rep. Sensenbrenner was chairman of the judiciary committee when the United States was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001. Five days later, he received a first draft of the USA Patriot Act from the Justice Department. Firmly believing that that original draft went too far, he asked then-House Speaker Dennis Hastert for time to redraft the legislation. Following numerous meetings and negotiations with the White House, the FBI and the intelligence community, Rep. Sensenbrenner authored a revised version … that was ultimately the version adopted as law.”

The EFF explains Sensenbrenner argues that Patriot Act never was intended by Congress “to permit the NSA’s collection of the records of every telephone call made to, from and within the United States.  He’s urging the court the grant the ACLU’s motion for a preliminary injunction, which would halt the program until the lawsuits are concluded.

The fight erupted after The Guardian published a classified document in June leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who now is residing in Russia.  The report detailed how the NSA is vacuuming up “call data from the Verizon