Rush Holt: NSA Decision Should Prompt Repeal of PATRIOT Act

U.S. Rep. Rush Holt on Tuesday issued the following statement in response to the Tuesday's ruling by Federal Circuit Court Judge Richard J. Leon that the National Security Agency’s telephone metadata program is likely unconstitutional:

“Years before Judge Leon’s ruling, I made the case that these programs as passed by Congress violated the Fourth Amendment. Judge Leon has now confirmed my interpretation,” Holt said. “As we learned earlier this summer, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court itself ruled in the fall of 2011 that the warrantless collection of emails and other digital messages between Americans as unconstitutional as well. There is a simple way to restore the constitutional standard for surveillance against Americans: repeal the offending laws, the PATRIOT Act and the FISA Amendments Act. My bill, HR 2818, does exactly that, and I call on the leadership of the House to schedule it for consideration when we return in January 2014.”