Tag Archives: Patriot Act

Noem Votes To Increase Warrantless Access To Financial Records

Just yesterday, Rep. Kristi Noem voted in favor of the deceptive H.R. 5606: Anti-terrorism Information Sharing Is Strength Act.  Fortunately, the bill failed.  As Republican Rep. Justin Amash put it, “… H.R. 5606 will permit the government to demand information on any American from any financial institution merely upon reasonable suspicion.”  Reasonable suspicion by the way, is the same legal standard federal officials used when needlessly strip searching a teen-age Sturgis girl.

H.R. 5606 is deceptive in that it’s not really about stopping terrorists.  Section 314 of the Patriot Act already allows law enforcement to  seek financial records of suspected terrorists and money launderers.  H.R. 5606 allows law enforcement to seek financial records based on the low “reasonable suspicious” standard for any matter of crime, all without a search warrant/judicial oversight. read more

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Senators Thune and Rounds Embrace Playground Politics

Defying all logic, both Senators Thune and Rounds voted to renew the Patriot Act as is without changes.  The Patriot Act was set to sunset on June 1st, 2015.  Though the Patriot Act had been renewed in the past, this time was different.  In May 2013, Edward Snowden leaked thousands of classified documents to several journalists which shed light on how the Patriot Act was being actually being used.  One of the most startling revelations was that the National Security Agency (NSA) had been collecting the phone records of virtually every American on a daily basis. This gave rise to a number of developments: read more

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