The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government and requires any warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause.
But Sen. Deb Fischer has problems defending the privacy of each and every American.
Fischer supports the super-secret National Security Agency’s government snooping which allows them to collect virtually all of our phone records without warrants – including incoming and outgoing calls and when the calls were made. The NSA is so powerful that even the Intelligence committees in Congress can’t really control it. Let that sink in. Let’s look at the record:
In April 2024, the Senate debated H.R. 7888 reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 FISA, for two years, until 2026. Sadly, FISA has been used to spy on U.S. citizens without a warrant in violation of the Fourth Amendment. While the bill includes provisions ostensibly to protect the privacy of U.S. citizens, those provisions fail to uphold Americans’ Fourth Amendment-protected rights. Furthermore, the FISA Court approves just about any surveillance request that comes its way, and given the track record of intelligence agencies, it is unlikely that they would actually follow these rules. Yet Fischer voted to pass the bill. However 16 of her fellow Republicans voted against it.
Prior to that vote, Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL), along with Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND), filed a bipartisan amendment to the bill that would have required the government to obtain a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) before reviewing the contents of Americans’ private communications. Requiring the government to obtain court approval before accessing the content of Americans’ private communications that get swept up in Section 702 surveillance would protect Americans while preserving Section 702 as a foreign intelligence collection tool. The amendment was based on language from Durbin’s bipartisan Security and Freedom Enhancement (SAFE) Act, a compromise bill that protects Americans from foreign threats and from warrantless government surveillance.
As Durbin explained “Congress’ intention when we passed FISA Section 702 was clear as could be—Section 702 is supposed to be used only for spying on foreigners abroad. Instead, sadly, it has enabled warrantless access to vast databases of Americans’ private phone calls, text messages, and e-mails,” Durbin said. “I’m disappointed that my narrow amendment to protect Americans while preserving Section 702 as a foreign intelligence collection tool was not agreed to. If the government wants to spy on my private communications or the private communications of any American, they should be required to get approval from a judge, just as our Founding Fathers intended in writing the Constitution.” But Fischer voted against the Durbin-Cramer amendment.
In May 2020, the Senate debated the USA FREEDOM Reauthorization Act of 2020. Despite the program’s title, the act permits surveillance of Americans who are not charged with any crime. Fischer voted against an amendment by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) to remove internet website browsing information and search history from the scope of authority to access certain business records for foreign intelligence and international terrorism investigations.
In early January 2018, the Senate debated S. 139, the FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act of 2017 which would reauthorize for six years, through 2023, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which governs electronic surveillance of foreign terrorism suspects. The bill would require the development of procedures for searching the NSA database that would protect the Fourth Amendment-guaranteed rights of U.S. citizens, while allowing the FBI to access information with an order from the secret FISA Court, in certain cases. However the FISA Court gives a green light to just about any surveillance request that comes its way, and FISA-approved NSA warrantless surveillance of American citizens has become common knowledge. Fischer voted for the bill.
Nebraska voters should be outraged that Deb Fischer uses the Fourth Amendment for toilet paper.