Fourth Amendment Caucus

01/11/2018

In the next few days, Congress will vote on whether and how to renew a controversial part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that has resulted in the collection of thousands of Americans’ private communications — without probable cause or a warrant.

12/12/2017

11/08/2017

📺LIVE NOW: The House Judiciary Committee is marking up the USA Liberty Act, a bill that reauthorizes Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Representative Ted Poe and Representative Zoe Lofgren will be introducing an amendment to improve this act, ensuring that the bill upholds the Fourth Amendment and ends the warrantless backdoor searches of Americans' calls, emails, texts and other communications.

Read more about the amendment here: http://bit.ly/2yh6O27

Learn more: http://judiciary.house.gov Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/housejudiciary Twitter: https://twitter.com/HouseJudiciary

11/07/2017

This morning, Representative Ted Poe and Representative Zoe Lofgren announced a bipartisan push to amend and improve the USA Liberty Act, to ensure that the bill adequately reforms a sweeping, secretive government spying program.

"Although the USA Liberty Act makes some necessary reforms, as currently drafted, we believe the bill does not adequately protect the Constitutional rights of Americans.

We will offer an amendment that provides the level of constitutional protections that the American people deserve, while affording intelligence agencies the authority necessary to target foreign terrorists, criminals and other overseas intelligence targets. This amendment upholds the Fourth Amendment and ends the warrantless backdoor searches of Americans' calls, emails, texts and other communications."

Proposes “Shut the Backdoor” Amendment to protect Americans’ Constitutional Rights WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Reps. Ted Poe (R-Texas) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) today announced their bipartisan push to amend and improve the USA Liberty Act, to ensure that the bill adequately reforms a sweeping, secreti...

07/26/2017

This morning Representative Ted Poe and Representative Zoe Lofgren accepted 100,000 petitions from constituents calling for the overhaul of section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Congress must protect the Fourth Amendment and the right to privacy.

This morning Representative Zoe Lofgren and I accepted 100,000 petitions from constituents calling for the overhaul of section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Congress must protect the Fourth Amendment and the right to privacy.

05/08/2017

Privacy is being betrayed in the name of national security.

Privacy-minded lawmakers in Congress look to limit the N.S.A.’s use of information about Americans that it incidentally collects while spying on foreigners.

04/27/2017

Yesterday we rolled out the Fourth Amendment Caucus providing a new, bipartisan forum for ideas, organization, and strategy as we fight to protect the Constitution and the American people’s privacy.

02/16/2017

Today, Congressman Ted Poe and Congressman John Conyers, Jr. along with Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner, Representative Zoe Lofgren, and Congresswoman Suzan DelBene introduced H.R. 1110, Stop Mass Hacking Act. This is the companion bill to legislation introduced on the Senate side by Senator Ron Wyden and Senator Rand Paul. Last year, the Department of Justice moved to make an administrative rule change to Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure that would give the government the ability to hack the computers of a massive amount of American citizens just by obtaining a single warrant. The change went into effect in December. The Stop Massive Hacking Act will repeal Rule 41.

. Last year, the Department of Justice moved to make an administrative rule change to Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure that would give the government the ability to hack the computers of a massive amount of American citizens just by obtaining a single warrant. The change went into...

11/16/2016

Security contractors recently discovered preinstalled software in some Android phones that monitors where users go, whom they talk to and what they write in texts.

10/28/2016

“We are concerned about the full scope of the new authority that would be provided to the Department of Justice,” the lawmakers wrote. “We believe that Congress -- and the American public -- must better understand the Department’s need for the proposed amendments, how the Department intends to use its proposed new powers, and the potential consequences to our digital security before these rules go into effect.”

Bipartisan Coalition Presses DOJ About Government Hacking Oct 27 2016 Lawmakers Seek Answers About How Government Would Use New Hacking Authority, One Month Before Rule 41 Amendments Would Take Effect Washington, D.C. –A bipartisan coalition of Senate and House lawmakers today asked Attorney General...

10/28/2016

Reps. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), and dozens of their colleagues responded to a letter from Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper that failed to address a bipartisan request for a briefing to resolve questions raised by recent reports that Yahoo had searched all its users’ incoming emails at the federal government’s request.

Representatives renew demand for briefing on Yahoo email searches after inadequate response from administration Oct 28 2016 Attorney General and Director of National Intelligence ignore briefing request WASHINGTON, D.C. – Reps. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), and dozens of their colleag...

09/28/2016

Thanks to those that came out for Hacking the World: Changes in the Rules of Criminal Procedure today! Rule 41 is a Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure that governs when judges issue warrants. On December 1st, absent action from Congress, a change will go into effect that will dramatically expand the authority of the government to hack into computers.