The man who tried to stand up to the Joker in The Dark Knight is now standing up to another bully. The difference is that this particular bully, the NSA, isn’t fictional and clearly much more dangerous than the Joker.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, the powerful chairman of the chamberโs Judiciary Committee, on Tuesday strongly endorsed a series of sweeping restrictions on U.S. surveillance programs โ from ending the bulk collection of Americansโ phone call logs to creating new oversight mechanisms to keep the National Security Agency in check.
In a speech at Georgetown University Law Center, the Vermont Democrat said the government โhas not made its caseโ that the ability to collect Americansโ phone records en masse under the PATRIOT Act is โan effective counterterrorism tool, especially in light of the intrusion on Americansโ privacy rights.โ