During consideration of a bill to reauthorize Title VII of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA (H.R. 7888), Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) offered an amendment to prohibit federal officials from requesting orders under FISA to surveil U.S. persons, including citizens and permanent residents. It would ban officials from querying information collected under Section 702 using search terms connected to a U.S. person. Additionally, the amendment would prohibit information obtained about a U.S. person from being used as evidence against that person in criminal, civil, or administrative proceedings.
The Senate rejected Paul’s amendment on April 19, 2024 by a vote of 11 to 81 (Roll Call 147). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because the Fourth Amendment prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures and requires any warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause.
