Republican Sen. Rand Paul has filed a class action lawsuit against the White House and the National Security Agency over the bulk collection of U.S. telephone records. Teaming with the right-wing libertarian group FreedomWorks, Paul said the NSA’s mass retention of phone data violates privacy rights while offering no intelligence gains.
Sen. Rand Paul: “The interesting thing is, is as we’ve looked at this both at the Intelligence Committee level and through investigations by the media, there’s no evidence that there’s been one terrorist caught or detained or prevented uniquely on this information. I’m not against the NSA. I’m not against spying. I’m not against looking at phone records. I just want you to go to a judge, have a person’s name and individualize the warrant. That’s what the Fourth Amendment says.”
Paul says his suit will seek to cover every American who’s used a phone in the last five years. He expects it to reach the U.S. Supreme Court.