A Republican lawmaker in California has brought forth a resolution to compel Congress and President Obama to quit the unlawful National Security Agency surveillance and to halt the Fourth Amendment violations.
“Our country was founded on the principles of protecting individual liberties and the inalienable rights of the people from the infringement of overreaching governments,” state Assemblyman Travis Allen said in a written statement. “There must be no compromise between national security and honoring our commitment to every American citizen through the Constitution.”
Both — national security and the nation’s constitutional form of governance — are “equally important,” he said.
“Government should be transparent,” he said, “and be held accountable to the public.”
Open governance was a cornerstone of President Obama’s promises to the public during both his campaigns. Mr. Allen’s resolution is local, but it captures a mood that’s been echoed on a nationwide scale.
The NSA’s PRISM scandal that involved the capturing of individuals’ data stored by megatech companies such as Google, Facebook and Yahoo rocked the international community, leading European leaders to warn their citizens: If you want your information kept private, don’t do business with America.
In July, for instance, German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich, the top security official for that nation, told privacy groups to bypass U.S.-based service and social media companies in order to keep their personal information intact, The Associated Press reported.
Mr. Allen said in his written statement that an NSA audit from May 2012 indicated that the agency was guilty of 2,776 unauthorized information collections in the preceding 12 months.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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