Ron Paul condemns reports of NSA secret seizure of Verizon phone records

Former Texas Congressman and Campaign for Liberty Chairman Ron Paul was sharply critical of reports of the National Security Agency’s seizure and surveillance of Americans’ Verizon phone records in a statement today on the C4L website:

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“I wish I could say I was shocked at the reports the NSA is secretly spying on the private phone calls of millions of Verizon customers. However, this is a predictable result of a government that continues to erode our liberties while promising some glimmering hope of security.

“The Fourth Amendment is clear; it says we should be secure in our persons, houses, papers and effects, and that all warrants must have probable cause.

“I opposed and continue to oppose the Patriot Act because I believe it throws the Fourth Amendment right out the window. It is certainly not patriotic to support warrantless wiretaps, blanket ‘metadata’ collection, and spying on innocent American citizens.

“Unfortunately, what is worse than the reports, is knowing that politicians of both parties will continue to defend this practice as necessary to supposedly keep us ‘safe’. We do not have to sacrifice our liberties for security. At times like this, the question must be asked, ‘if we are willing to change our way of life and our very definition of freedom while tolerating the invasive searches at our airports and now of our phone calls, have the terrorists already won?’”

Michigan Congressman Justin Amash echoed these sentiments on his Facebook page today–“The astonishing amount of information the government is secretly seizing from Americans pursuant to the Patriot Act should shock anyone who has even a passing interest in privacy, civil liberties, or the Constitution. The government is vacuuming up data on every call made by every customer of a major phone company. This sort of sweeping surveillance is not even plausibly authorized by statute, let alone the Constitution.”

Also today, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) voiced his criticism of the NSA’s actions, “The National Security Agency’s seizure and surveillance of virtually all of Verizon’s phone customers is an astounding assault on the Constitution. After revelations that the Internal Revenue Service targeted political dissidents and the Department of Justice seized reporters’phone records, it would appear that this Administration has now sunk to a new low.”

Sen. Paul also announced that he will introduce the Fourth Amendment Restoration Act of 2013, legislation which ensures the Constitutional protections of the Fourth Amendment are not violated by any government entity.