NEW YORK – Congress should let Patriot Act Section 215 expire on June 1, effectively ending the NSA’s bulk phone records collection program, the American Civil Liberties Union said today.
The ACLU also voiced strong opposition to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s bill, introduced last night, which would extend Section 215 until December 31, 2020.
“The Patriot Act has been at the root of many of the most serious abuses of government spying powers,” said Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the ACLU. “We need to have a serious debate about the effectiveness of the Patriot Act and its implications for civil liberties. Until that happens, Congress should let Section 215 of the Patriot Act expire with the whimper it deserves.”
Congress included sunset provisions in the original Patriot Act because the legislation was drafted quickly and it was understood that these sections would need to be revisited once more was known about their implications for civil liberties.
A blog post by Romero calling for Section 215’s expiration is at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anthony-d-romero/the-sun-must-go-down-on-the-patriot-act_b_7118240.html
Originally published at https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-calls-expiration-patriot-act-section-215
