In April of 2024, public functionaries from both political parties used over 12,000 unreadable words to put restrictions, requirements, certifications, prohibitions, limitations and then exceptions on FISA.

Why can’t these temporarily-seated public functionaries understand that this doesn’t “Reform Intelligence and Secure America,” as its name implies, it rather expands their usurpation of our Fourth Amendment right to security of person and papers and represents a violation of their limited delegated authorities granted to them by We the People?

Has anyone actually read the original FISA legislation introduced on May 18, 1977, by the late Senator Ted Kennedy and signed into law by President Jimmy Carter in 1978 that includes approximately 49,000 words?

I didn’t think so.

When I tried to read it, the first thing that jumped out at me, as my eyes were glossing over the “Definitions” outlined on page 1 of this “Act” (that includes 804 Sections), was that “Foreign power” includes being “a faction of a foreign nation or nations, not substantially composed of United States persons.”

Not substantially composed of United States persons (So, in other words, there can be a couple of U. S. “persons,” that “compose” a foreign power)? I don’t get it, and I don’t like it.

United States persons?  According to the definition found on Page 1,443 of 22 USC 6010, a United States person includes: “any United States citizen or alien admitted for permanent residence in the United States, and any corporation, partnership, or other organization organized under the laws of the United States.”

I wonder if the definition of alien admitted for permanent residence in the United States includes the 2014 estimated 12 million illegal aliens who have “unlawfully” admitted themselves “for permanent residence in the United States?” (this original commentary pointed to a 2014 Homeland Security data analysis that is no longer available, which, by the way, excluded refugees, asylum seekers and non-immigrants). A Report from 2014 published on the Federation for American Immigration Reform website confirms that same 12 million illegal alien estimate.

The more recent numbers, according to FAIR, states that as of 2023 that number has increased to 16.8 million illegal aliens living in the United States.

So, what are our public functionaries doing to uphold their Oath to Protect and Defend the Constitution that was written to Secure the Rights of the lawful residents of these United States? 

Well, on January 17, 2024, they passed House Resolution 957 that “denounced” the White House occupier (usurper) Joe Biden’s administration’s “open-border policies.” HR 957 also “condemns” the “national security and public safety crisis” created by White House vice-occupier usurper (Comrade) Kamala and her co-horts in the DHS and other departments, and HR 957 “urges” Biden to “end his open-border policies.”

Urges? Condemns? Denounces?

How about using delegated authority to throw the bums out of office and into prison for aiding and abetting enemies of our Republic?

The words of these elected and appointed government workers ring hollow when they don’t use their constitutionally provided tools to put a stop to this invasion of our country and to remove this treasonous regime of usurpers and their invading marauders from the bowels of our Republic.

I also find it interesting that the mammoth United States Code is listed on a U. S. Government Publishing website with the byline: Keeping America Informed.  Indeed. Informed of what? The growing Behemoth of Big Government?

The task of attempting to “be informed” about the myriad legalese and loopholes that comprise the revolutionization of our Rule of Law is monumental and, quite frankly, impossible to accomplish (there is little doubt that is the usurpers’ goal).

It would do us well to examine some of the additional myriad words, acronyms, clamps, bells and whistles relative to the groundbreaking (or earth shattering) legislation known as FISA written by the so-called “Lion” of the Senate (or was that “Lyin” - as in what I thought about his cowardly, self-serving self-defense regarding his culpability in the untimely, tragic death of Mary Jo Kopechne at the bottom of Poucha Pond on July 18, 1969). But, I digress.

What is FISA, and what are some of the many ways that our public functionaries have usurped our Fourth Amendment cast-in-stone protection against unwarranted searches and seizures?

Well, there is the Terrorist Surveillance Actions developed during the G.W. Bush administration (2001-2009) that are detailed in a New York Times article entitled Bush Let’s U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts written by James Risen and Eric Lichtblau, both with extensive backgrounds in writing about U.S. National Security issues.

This Administrative-State-beauty-of-countless-words identified as Terrorist Surveillance Actions was a part of The President’s Surveillance Program which included the warrantless surveillance program with the code name Stellar Wind.

Apparently, at the time, the GWB administration joined the late Senator Kennedy in ignoring the Supreme court majority decision in Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347 (1967).

And they all ignored the Supreme court (8-0) unanimous decision in United States v. United States District Court, No. 70-153 (known as Keith) (1972).

NOTE: For reasons unknown, “Mr. Justice Rehnquist took no part in the consideration or decision of (Keith).” Why aren’t the American people informed of the rationale behind Mr. Rehnquist being MIA?  I'm just askin.'

It is more important to NOTE that both of these cases concurred that wiretapping was indeed included as a violation of our Fourth Amendment protection against warrantless searches and seizures.

Then there’s

1. The Privacy Act of 1974 (which is 8,253 words long);
2. The Protect America Act of 2007 (2,557 words); 
3. The USA Patriot Act which is an acronym for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act (doncha know). (61,154 words); and 
4. The USA Freedom Act which of course is an acronym for ‘Uniting and Strengthening America by Fulfilling Rights and Ensuring Effective Discipline Over Monitoring Act of 2015’ (20,950 words).

This is name only a few examples of the on-going usurpation of our Fourth Amendment.

All numbers shown in this commentary are approximate, but, I would bet a huge amount of taxpayers’ fiat currency that nobody has read any of these so-called “laws” in their entirety!

I am also beginning to wonder if any of our temporarily-seated public functionaries have read the Fourth Amendment in the Bill of Rights to the United States Constitution.  If you, yourself, haven’t looked at our Constitution lately, here are those 54 specific words that comprise the Fourth Amendment:

“The right 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.”

What’s that old advertising campaign slogan?  You’ve come a long way, baby? Indeed we have, and if I remember correctly, that ad campaign was about women smoking. Oh, great. You know that the devil is always in the details (sort of like Alexander Hamilton’s unheeded warning in Federalist 84 about adding a Bill of Rights to our Constitution at all, for fear of the usurpers regulating that which is written but never granted to the federal government in the first place).

Alas, it seems that buggy has left the station, probably never to be seen again. In fact, considering the current cache of usurpers posing as public functionaires in this country, if we were to try to eliminate the Bill of Rights in 2024 (God forbid), it would, no doubt, be couched in some big government takeover of even more aspects of our Lives and Liberty.

I wouldn’t doubt that for one big fat legislative minute.

So, as the story goes, the people continue to ratify these actions by complying with them, while our government takes our very specific 54 word limitation upon their power to violate our private domain, and they strip the very essence of our constitutionally-sound protection rug right out from under our feet.

Many people in this country believe that this type of lawless usurpation of our individual Liberty must be stopped. You can check out for yourself the myriad (also unreadable) online opinion pieces that have been written through the years since The battle of FISA Vs the Fourth first began its fateful journey in 1978 (not to mention the grief our de jure President Donald J. Trump is experiencing even today as a result of the lawfare that branches ever outward when we don't protect our rights).

We the People can yet restore constitutional limitations built in to our “republican form of government guaranteed to each State” under Article 4 Section 4 of our Constitution that was written by men who were much more keenly aware of the potential tyranny of the Deep State than we seem to be … the key word here is yet … It’s FISA (153,914 words and counting) versus the Fourth Amendment (54 specific fixed words).

Team Republic is advocating for the underdog Fourth. Our Magnificent Republic already has the legal and lawful tools to demand that our public functionaries adhere to our Founding Principles.

You should join us and help us educate the American populace on the simple truth that The Law Is On Our Side (TLIOOS – here's an acronym for the government bureaucrat busy-bodies who might find their way to the Magnificent Republic).  All are welcome.

Janice Daniels (commentary first written in 2014; updated to present form in 2024 because the situation has only gotten worse).

NOTE:

Congress shall make no law abridging the right to FREE SPEECH - Period.