[Infowarrior] - What Did the USA Freedom Act Actually Amend?

[Richard Forno]

What Did the USA Freedom Act Actually Amend?

There has been a lot of ink spilled here and elsewhere about the USA Freedom Act over the last several weeks. Its privacy protections. Its alterations to the government’s surveillance authority. Its increase in material support for terrorism sentences. But I have two much more basic (and very nerdy) questions to ask: What did the USA Freedom Act actually amend and how will the US Code read once all the dust settles? As I explain below, although the USA Freedom Act was written to modify the existing business records provision, the fact that Congress let that provision expire means the USA Freedom Act is now modifying language that no longer exists. Simply put, by waiting until several days after midnight on June 1 to pass the USA Freedom Act, Congress may have ended up creating a series of utterly unnecessary headaches for itself (and everyone else), and potentially opened the door to challenges to business records court orders served on, for example, libraries and schools.

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http://justsecurity.org/23458/usa-freedom-act-amend/

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