WASHINGTON – Although they denounced the Obama administration’s recent seizure of reporters’ records, some Tennessee members of Congress have supported even more powerful tools for snooping on the news media and other Americans, privacy advocates contend.
They did so, the advocates say, through their votes for the Patriot Act, the anti-terrorism legislation first passed in 2001 just weeks after attacks on New York City and Washington. It was reauthorized in 2006, and several of its most controversial aspects were further extended in 2011.
The recent controversy over the Justice Department subpoenaing phone records of The Associated Press and emails and phone records of a Fox News reporter ought to ignite debate about the surveillance powers Congress has handed over to the executive branch, privacy experts say.
Read more at The Tennessean.