PATRIOT Act author reacts to gov't snooping: This isn't what we had in mind...

In an op-ed published by the UK's Guardian over the weekend, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wisc., insisted that President Obama is falsely claiming Congress authorized the controversial NSA PRISM surveillance.  On the contrary, he adds, the laws approved by Congress have aimed to protect Americans from such encroachments on liberty:

The administration claims authority to sift through details of our private lives because the Patriot Act says that it can. I disagree. I authored the Patriot Act, and this is an abuse of that law. [...]

In his press conference on Friday, President Obama described the massive collection of phone and digital records as "two programs that were originally authorized by Congress, have been repeatedly authorized by Congress". But Congress has never specifically authorized these programs, and the Patriot Act was never intended to allow the daily spying the Obama administration is conducting.

To obtain a business records order like the one the administration obtained, the Patriot Act requires the government to prove to a special federal court, known as a Fisa court, that it is complying with specific guidelines set by the attorney general and that the information sought is relevant to an authorized investigation. Intentionally targeting US citizens is prohibited.

Technically, the administration's actions were lawful insofar as they were done pursuant to an order from the Fisa court. But based on the scope of the released order, both the administration and the Fisa court are relying on an unbounded interpretation of the act that Congress never intended.

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