Reply #119: Obama and Patriot Act 2

[Adelante]

Obama filibustered against Patriot Act 2 in Bush's 2005 version. He co-sponsored legislation to amend Patriot 1 against privacy intrusions, placed limits on surveillance and wiretapping and search warrants. Those changes were made to Patriot 2 in the final 2006 bill, HR3199. The final bill rescued libraries from the tyranny of national security letters, strengthened judicial review of national security letters, gag orders and FBI subpoenas, and strictly limited sneak-and-peak searches.

He still wasn't happy with it, and he said so, but he thought there was progress made on protecting civil liberties, while not cutting the legs entirely out from under law enforcement, and with 90% of the Senate in favor he voted for it, since it wasn't going to get any better that year.

I don't see why it would be such a disappointment, unless you are looking for absolute perfection on this. He fought a good fight and didn't get everything he wanted, but that's how legislating works. He still did good work on Patriot 2.