14 DAY TRIAL // Arizona is taking a stance against mass surveillance and has approved a new bill for this particular purpose.
The state’s senate panel has given the green light on a bill that withdraws state support for intelligence agencies’ collection of metadata and bans courts from accepting the use of warrantless data during cases.
The bill still has a few steps to go before it actually becomes law, including being approved by a majority of the Senate Rules committee and the full senate.
“The 10th Amendment allows states to stand up against unconstitutional federal law. It's a state issue because many times the NSA is turning that information over to our local and state law enforcement and using that in cases that are basic criminal prosecutions, not anything to do with terrorism,” said Senator Kelli Ward, the one who introduced the bill.
Obviously, state agencies are showing some concern about this new bill, particularly about the part where information obtained without a warrant cannot be used in courts.
“An officer could be given information — important information: a shooting, a terrorist attack, whatever it is you want to talk about - but they cannot confirm that the information came from a warrant-covered source. But if they do nothing with the information, something bad is going to happen,” says Lyle Mann, director of the Arizona Peace Officers Standards and Training Board.
Kelli Ward stands her ground, however, claiming that liberties cannot be sacrificed in the name of security and that there should be some balance. “I don’t think we should be giving up liberties, especially liberties that are guaranteed to us in our Constitution under our Fourth Amendment rights in the interest of security, even if it is terrorism,” said Ward.
The United States president had promised several times so far that he would implement some limitations to the NSA spying, but when the time came, the announced reforms didn’t really change much.