My five minutes.(THE RIGHT PERSPECTIVE)

While senators generally have unlimited time for debate, members of the U.S. House of Representatives often have only five minutes to make their point heard before a final vote on important legislation. After the U.S. Senate passed the latest amendment to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act on February 12, I thought about what I'd say if I had the chance to speak for five minutes before the assembled U.S. House of Representatives (which was next on the legislative path for the bill). Here's what I'd say:

The pending bill, already passed by the Senate in a 68-29 vote, proposes to allow wiretap searches without warrants or probable cause. What that means in practical terms is that the federal government is going to be tapping the phones of people who are--by definition--probably not committing a crime. They are going to be tapping the phones of people who are probably law-abiding citizens. That's not only a colossal waste of law-enforcement resources and effort, it is also blatantly unconstitutional.

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The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads:

 
   The fight 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. 

The Fourth Amendment sets forth a preamble of how it intends to protect the people from unreasonable searches, and then defines four tests needed for a search by the federal government to be constitutional. One, you need a warrant issued by a court. Two, the warrant needs to be based upon probable cause, meaning that there is more than a 50-percent chance a crime has been committed. Three, the warrant has to be supported by an oath. And finally, the warrant has to state--specifically--what is being searched for.

Those aren't very high hurdles for a search to take place.