Rand Paul Suing Over NSA Policies, Senator Tells Fox News

I will be the first to admit that I am clueless when it comes to the whole NSA stuff. I mean seriously, is this the BS that came about from the Snowden affair (biting tongue)? Maybe it is my naivete, but so what if they are. If the government has that much time on their hands to worry about what I (don't) use my phone for, or what my opinion of the Administration is, we have bigger problems. I'm a blogger, my views are out there for the world to see, they don't need to access my phone records or e-mails. Think about it, Ted "I shit my pants" Nugget is still walking freely about, as is Larry "let's have a Revolution" Klayman. You would think they would be the first to go.

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying "there doesn't need to be more questions asked." The lack of information about the program’s scope and functioning makes any debate about it impossible. But there needs a balance between officials’ defense of the program and the public’s right to know about it.

Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico, makes an interesting point, "The news that the government issued a blanket order for Americans’ phone records is deeply disturbing and exactly why I voted against the Patriot Act in 2001. It’s also why I have opposed reauthorization of similar provisions without adding civil liberties protections – protections that require agencies to explain specifically what information it thinks it needs to see and why.

So step one, according to some, is to secure more transparency and the legal rationale the Obama administration is claiming for it. But is Rand Paul's lawsuit the way to go?

Rand Paul Suing Over NSA Policies, Senator Tells Fox News

See also:

Rand Paul’s misguided case against the NSA


Charles Lane lays the legal precedence for the governments actions,,,

The bane of Big Government, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), is inviting Americans to join him in a class-action lawsuit to stop what he says are unconstitutional invasions of privacy by the National Security Agency. “I’m going to be seeing if I can challenge this at the Supreme Court level,” he declared Sunday on Fox News.

Who would win Paul and 10 Million Citizens v. NSA? Paul’s first problem would be a lack of standing to sue in federal court. It’s not enough to claim that the government is threatening your rights; applicable precedent says you have to show a “concrete and particularized” violation of those rights or, at least, an imminent one.