Enrolled SJR 22: Opposing the warrantless collection of telephone call data by the National Security Agency.
00Enrolled SJR 22 01 Opposing the warrantless collection of telephone call data by the National Security Agency. 02 _______________ 03 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 04 WHEREAS the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States provides 05 "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against 06 unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but 07 upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to 08 be searched, and the persons or things to be seized"; and 09 WHEREAS the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States provides 10 "No person shall . . . be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law"; and 11 WHEREAS, on December 16, 2013, United States District Court Judge Richard Leon 12 ruled that the National Security Agency's program, bulk collection, and querying of telephone 13 record metadata are likely unconstitutional; and 14 WHEREAS the legislature objects to the dragnet approach to data collection allowed 15 by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, a court that operates in secret and, under sec. 16 of the USA PATRIOT Act, issues orders that perpetuate the warrantless collection of data
01 of nearly all Americans; and 02 WHEREAS the National Security Agency stores the date and time of calls, their 03 duration, and the participating telephone numbers of the calls of nearly all Americans in a 04 centralized database, which allows National Security Agency analysts to access not only those 05 numbers, but the numbers with which the numbers have been in contact, and, in turn, the 06 numbers in contact with those numbers; and 07 WHEREAS the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, in its January 2014 08 report titled "Report on the Telephone Records Program Conducted under Section 215 of the 09 USA PATRIOT Act and on the Operations of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court," 10 questions the legal basis for the National Security Agency's mass telephone call data 11 collection program; and 12 WHEREAS, when telephone call data of Americans is collected by the National 13 Security Agency, that data is not related to specific investigations of the Federal Bureau of 14 Investigation; and 15 WHEREAS orders issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court at the 16 request of the federal government require telephone companies to provide new calling records 17 on a daily basis, a mandate not grounded in statute; and 18 WHEREAS sec. 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act is designed to enable the Federal 19 Bureau of Investigation to obtain records in the course of investigations, but the National 20 Security Agency's mass collection of the records is not consistent with that design; and 21 WHEREAS the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 prohibits telephone 22 companies from sharing consumer data with the government except in special circumstances, 23 and the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board concluded that the National Security 24 Agency's telephone call data collection program may violate the Act; and 25 WHEREAS the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board found that the National 26 Security Agency's telephone call data collection program has not prevented, discovered, or 27 identified terrorist attacks, plots, or suspects that threatened the security of the United States; 28 and 29 WHEREAS the widespread collection of telephone call data of Americans reveals 30 highly sensitive personal information; and 31 WHEREAS the legislature resolutely opposes the continuation of the National
01 Security Agency's warrantless data collection program; and 02 WHEREAS the legislature views the National Security Agency's storage in a central 03 database of the telephone call metadata of all Americans as an unconstitutional practice that 04 should be immediately suspended; and 05 WHEREAS the history of government coercion, persecution, and abuse of personal 06 information and human life in the twentieth century prompts the legislature to seek to protect 07 the liberty of future generations from an oppressive and tyrannical federal government; and 08 WHEREAS the fundamental rights of Americans to speak freely and associate with 09 others are threatened and are likely being diminished by the National Security Agency's mass 10 collection of telephone call data; and 11 WHEREAS the National Security Agency's mass collection of telephone call data 12 may intimidate or chill the freedom of expression of individuals and groups that disagree with 13 certain government policies or result in extreme scrutiny of those persons simply for opposing 14 those policies; and 15 WHEREAS the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has deviated from its purpose 16 to authorize warrants for electronic surveillance relating only to a specific person, a specific 17 place, or a specific communications account or device; and 18 WHEREAS the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court operates in a secretive 19 manner that prevents the court from hearing public input regarding government requests to 20 conduct surveillance; 21 BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the federal government to 22 end the mass telephone call data collection program conducted under sec. 215 of the USA 23 PATRIOT Act, because of its lack of a statutory foundation and because it raises serious 24 constitutional concerns under the Fourth and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution of the 25 United States; and be it 26 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the federal 27 government to eliminate all stored metadata upon ending the mass telephone call data 28 collection program; and be it 29 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the United States 30 Congress to authorize the creation of a panel of private sector lawyers to serve as advocates 31 for the public before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to increase public knowledge
01 and oversight; and be it 02 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges judges of the 03 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to write opinions in a manner that allows the 04 government to declassify and release the opinions to the public; and be it 05 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the Foreign 06 Intelligence Surveillance Court to work to declassify past opinions and release those opinions 07 to the public; and be it 08 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature requests the United States 09 Attorney General and members of the intelligence and judiciary committees of the United 10 States Congress to inform the Alaska State Legislature of the federal government's activities 11 under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and provide the Alaska State Legislature with 12 copies of reports submitted under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act; and be it 13 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the Governor to 14 prohibit the use of state personnel and resources to assist the National Security Agency in its 15 collection of mass data on Alaskans without a specific search warrant; and be it 16 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature considers the National 17 Security Agency's unilateral collection of the telephone call data of all Americans a violation 18 of statute, an unconstitutional program, and a troubling overreach by the federal government; 19 the Alaska State Legislature has sworn to uphold both the Constitution of the United States 20 and the Constitution of the State of Alaska and will not assist the federal government by 21 facilitating programs that are tyrannical in nature, that subject Americans to unreasonable and 22 unwarranted searches, and that violate the fundamental principle of liberty; let this resolution 23 serve as a notice to this Administration and all future Administrations that Alaskans reject 24 surrendering their liberty in the name of an unconstitutional program. 25 COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Barack Obama, President of 26 the United States; the Honorable Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Vice-President of the United States and 27 President of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable John Boehner, Speaker of the U.S. House of 28 Representatives; the Honorable Harry Reid, Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate; the 29 Honorable Patrick J. Leahy, President pro tempore of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Dianne 30 Feinstein, Chair, U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence; the Honorable Saxby 31 Chambliss, Vice Chair, U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence; the Honorable Mike
01 Rogers, Chair, U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence; 02 the Honorable C. A. Dutch Ruppersburger, Ranking Member, U.S. House of Representatives 03 Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence; the Honorable Jeh Johnson, United States 04 Secretary of Homeland Security; the Honorable Sean Parnell, Governor of Alaska; General 05 Keith B. Alexander, United States Army, Director, National Security Agency; Richard H. 06 Ledgett, Jr., Deputy Director, National Security Agency; James B. Comey, Director, Federal 07 Bureau of Investigation; and the Honorable Lisa Murkowski and the Honorable Mark Begich, 08 U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska 09 delegation in Congress.