{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://garamendi.house.gov/press-release/garamendi-concurs-federal-court-ruling-nsa-us-phone-metadata-collection-overreach", "Garamendi Concurs with Federal Court Ruling that NSA U.S. Phone Metadata Collection an Overreach in Violation of 4th Amendment", "2013-12-17", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "CA", "John Garamendi", "G000559", "garamendi.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Cosponsors Legislation to Protect Civil Liberties\nDAVIS, CA \u2013 Congressman John Garamendi (D-Fairfield, CA), a cosponsor of legislation to prevent the abuse of surveillance powers, today concurred with District Court Judge Richard J. Leon\u2019s ruling that the National Security Agency\u2019s (NSA) bulk metadata collection of phone records of people residing within U.S. borders is likely an overreach of their authority and a violation of the Fourth Amendment. Given the significance of the ruling, Judge Leon stayed his ruling to give the government time to appeal.\nCongressman Garamendi is a cosponsor of the bipartisan and bicameral USA FREEDOM Act, H.R. 3361/S. 1599, which would \u201crein in the dragnet collection of data by the NSA and other government agencies, increase transparency of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Courts, provide businesses the ability to release information regarding FISA requests, and create an independent advocate to argue cases before the FISA Courts.\u201d\nIn his decision, Federal District Court Judge Leon wrote, \u201cI cannot imagine a more \u2018indiscriminate\u2019 and \u2018arbitrary\u2019 invasion than this systematic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen for purposes of querying and analyzing it without prior judicial approval. Surely, such a program infringes on \u2018that degree of privacy\u2019 that the founders enshrined in the Fourth Amendment.\u201d\n\u201cThe more I learn about the NSA\u2019s bulk metadata collection program, the more concerns I have,\u201d Congressman Garamendi said. \u201cIn the interests of keeping America safe from external threats, the NSA has instituted a catchall data collection program which I believe to be an extraordinary overreach of their power, in violation of the Fourth Amendment and beyond any intent of Congress.\u201d\nGaramendi continued, \u201cThis dragnet program alone is an unwarranted intrusion into Americans\u2019 lives, but coupled with other NSA programs that have recently been made public, it raises serious concerns about the state of privacy in our country. Today\u2019s ruling is a positive step towards protecting our rights to privacy enshrined in the Fourth Amendment and I hope next year that Congress takes a serious look at these programs.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://garamendi.house.gov/press-release/garamendi-concurs-federal-court-ruling-nsa-us-phone-metadata-collection-overreach"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.1841239649802446, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}