[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 140 (Monday, November 17, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6021-S6022]
PETITIONS AND MEMORIALS
The following petitions and memorials were laid before the Senate and
were referred or ordered to lie on the table as indicated:
[...]
POM-346. A joint resolution adopted by the Legislature of
the State of Alaska opposing the warrantless collection of
telephone call data by the National Security Agency; to the
Committee on the Judiciary.
Senate Joint Resolution 22
Whereas the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the
United States provides ``The right of the people to be secure
in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against
unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated,
and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause,
supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing
the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be
seized''; and
Whereas the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the
United States provides ``No person shall . . . be deprived of
life, liberty, or property, without due process of law''; and
Whereas, on December 16, 2013, United States District Court
Judge Richard Leon ruled that the National Security Agency's
program, bulk collection, and querying of telephone record
metadata are likely unconstitutional; and
Whereas the legislature objects to the dragnet approach to
data collection allowed by the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Court, a court that operates in secret and,
under sec. 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, issues orders that
perpetuate the warrantless collection of data of nearly all
Americans; and
Whereas the National Security Agency stores the date and
time of calls, their duration, and the participating
telephone numbers of the calls of nearly all Americans in a
centralized database, which allows National Security Agency
analysts to access not only those numbers, but the numbers
with which the numbers have been in contact, and, in turn,
the numbers in contact with those numbers; and
Whereas the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, in
its January 2014 report titled ``Report on the Telephone
Records Program Conducted under Section 215 of the USA
PATRIOT Act and on the Operations of the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Court,'' questions the legal basis for the
National Security Agency's mass telephone call data
collection program; and
Whereas, when telephone call data of Americans is collected
by the National Security Agency, that data is not related to
specific investigations of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation; and
Whereas orders issued by the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Court at the request of the federal government
require telephone companies to provide new calling records on
a daily basis, a mandate not grounded in statute; and
Whereas sec. 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act is designed to
enable the Federal Bureau of Investigation to obtain records
in the course of investigations, but the National Security
Agency's mass collection of the records is not consistent
with that design; and
Whereas the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986
prohibits telephone companies from sharing consumer data with
the government except in special circumstances, and the
Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board concluded that
the National Security Agency's telephone call data collection
program may violate the Act; and
Whereas the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board
found that the National Security Agency's telephone call data
collection program has not prevented, discovered, or
identified terrorist attacks, plots, or suspects that
threatened the security of the United States; and
Whereas the widespread collection of telephone call data of
Americans reveals highly sensitive personal information; and
Whereas the legislature resolutely opposes the continuation
of the National Security Agency's warrantless data collection
program; and
Whereas the legislature views the National Security
Agency's storage in a central database of the telephone call
metadata of all Americans as an unconstitutional practice
that should be immediately suspended; and
Whereas the history of government coercion, persecution,
and abuse of personal information and human life in the
twentieth
[[Page S6022]]
century prompts the legislature to seek to protect the
liberty of future generations from an oppressive and
tyrannical federal government; and
Whereas the fundamental rights of Americans to speak freely
and associate with others are threatened and are likely being
diminished by the National Security Agency's mass collection
of telephone call data; and
Whereas the National Security Agency's mass collection of
telephone call data may intimidate or chill the freedom of
expression of individuals and groups that disagree with
certain government policies or result in extreme scrutiny of
those persons simply for opposing those policies; and
Whereas the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has
deviated from its purpose to authorize warrants for
electronic surveillance relating only to a specific person, a
specific place, or a specific communications account or
device; and
Whereas the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court
operates in a secretive manner that prevents the court from
hearing public input regarding government requests to conduct
surveillance: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Alaska State Legislature urges the
federal government to end the mass telephone call data
collection program conducted under sec. 215 of the USA
PATRIOT Act, because of its lack of a statutory foundation
and because it raises serious constitutional concerns under
the Fourth and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution of the
United States; and be it further
Resolved, That the Alaska State Legislature urges the
federal government to eliminate all stored metadata upon
ending the mass telephone call data collection program; and
be it further
Resolved, That the Alaska State Legislature urges the
United States Congress to authorize the creation of a panel
of private sector lawyers to serve as advocates for the
public before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to
increase public knowledge and oversight; and be it further
Resolved, That the Alaska State Legislature urges judges of
the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to write opinions
in a manner that allows the government to declassify and
release the opinions to the public; and be it further
Resolved, That the Alaska State Legislature urges the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to work to declassify
past opinions and release those opinions to the public; and
be it further
Resolved, That the Alaska State Legislature requests the
United States Attorney General and members of the
intelligence and judiciary committees of the United States
Congress to inform the Alaska State Legislature of the
federal government's activities under the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act and provide the Alaska State
Legislature with copies of reports submitted under the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act; and be it further
Resolved, That the Alaska State Legislature urges the
Governor to prohibit the use of state personnel and resources
to assist the National Security Agency in its collection of
mass data on Alaskans without a specific search warrant; and
be it further
Resolved, That the Alaska State Legislature considers the
National Security Agency's unilateral collection of the
telephone call data of all Americans a violation of statute,
an unconstitutional program, and a troubling overreach by the
federal government; the Alaska State Legislature has sworn to
uphold both the Constitution of the United States and the
Constitution of the State of Alaska and will not assist the
federal government by facilitating programs that are
tyrannical in nature, that subject Americans to unreasonable
and unwarranted searches, and that violate the fundamental
principle of liberty; let this resolution serve as a notice
to this Administration and all future Administrations that
Alaskans reject surrendering their liberty in the name of an
unconstitutional program.
Copies of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable
Barack Obama, President of the United States; the Honorable
Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Vice-President of the United States and
President of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable John Boehner,
Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; the Honorable
Harry Reid, Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable
Patrick J. Leahy, President pro tempore of the U.S. Senate;
the Honorable Dianne Feinstein, Chair, U.S. Senate Select
Committee on Intelligence; the Honorable Saxby Chambliss,
Vice Chair, U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence; the
Honorable Mike Rogers, Chair, U.S. House of Representatives
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence; the Honorable C.
A. Dutch Ruppersburger, Ranking Member, U.S. House of
Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence;
the Honorable Jeh Johnson, United States Secretary of
Homeland Security; the Honorable Sean Parnell, Governor of
Alaska; General Keith B. Alexander, United States Army,
Director, National Security Agency; Richard H. Ledgett, Jr.,
Deputy Director, National Security Agency; James B. Comey,
Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation; and the Honorable
Lisa Murkowski and the Honorable Mark Begich, U.S. Senators,
and the Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of
the Alaska delegation in Congress.
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