Senator and libertarian boy wonder Rand Paul doesn’t want to be shown up by Larry Klayman, and to that end he has announced that he too will file a lawsuit against the Obama administration and the NSA.
From the Associated Press
In an interview Friday night on the Fox News show “Hannity,” the Kentucky Republican tells host Eric Bolling he believes everyone in the U.S. with a cellphone would be eligible to join the suit as a class action.
Paul says that people who want to join the suit are telling the government that it can’t have access to emails and phone records without permission or without a specific warrant.
This would be great except “the government” already needs permission from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
And — speak of the devil — the FISC renewed that permission yesterday.
And to be abundantly clear — “metadata” refers to phone numbers, time, and duration of calls. This does not include the content of your communications, meaning the NSA is not recording your phone sex. That is unless you’re having phone sex with a foreign terrorist and the agency obtained a warrant to listen.
You’re free to debate the ethics of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the NSA, but there is nothing illegal here. It was approved by Congress. Edward Snowden is not a “whisteblower” as he has revealed nothing illegal.
Rand Paul’s lawsuit has less to do with privacy and more to do with “the government” and his opposition to “the government.” His use of vague and overly-broad language is not an accident. It’s his philosophy. They’re coming for your donuts, for pete’s sake.
The same could be said for some of the administration’s harshest critics on the subject.