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NSA Surveillance Makes for Strange Bedfellows

The controversy over U.S. government surveillance has produced a king-size collection of

strange bed fellows. Beneath the covers one finds both amusing ironies and sober insights into

the nature of American governance and political psychology.

In the wake of the leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, the American Civil

Liberties Union filed suit in federal court in New York to block the National Security Agencys

vast phone data collection program. No surprise there. The NSA responded that Congress

authorized the electronic snooping when it passed the Patriot Act, the post-9/11 legislation

allowing for the collection of records relevant to fighting terrorism.

Now one of the lead authors of the Patriot Act, has joined the ACLU in a

friend of the court brief (PDF). Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R.-Wisc.),

represented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, another civil liberties

nonprofit group, contends that the unfocused dragnet undertaken by *the NSA+ is exactly the

type of unrestrained surveillance The vast majority of the records collected, the brief adds,

will have no relation to the investigation of terrorism at all.

Having an architect of the Patriot Act disavow the NSAs interpretation of the statute would

seem like a devastating blow to the spy agencys collection of phone numbers, call times, and

other information. (The government insists that it actually listens to what people are saying

only in connection with specific national security investigations.)

On the other hand, the Sensenbrenner brief acknowledges that Congress hasnt

been terribly diligent in its exercising its oversight responsibilities. Lawmakers reauthorized the

Patriot Act in 2009 and 2011, after the NSA briefed Congress on its surveillance activity.

Sensenbrenner insists that the NSAs disclosure was sorely lacking in detail, and as a result

few members of Congress understood what they were reauthorizing. Hmm

The brief, perhaps inadvertently, reveals another instance of lawmakers voting for complicated

legislation many of them later claim never to have fully comprehended (see also: Obamacare,Wall Street reform, and so forth). The laxity on Capitol Hill strikes me as every bit as unsettling

as the allegation of NSA overreaching.

Another unlikely party in bed with the ACLU is the National Rifle Association. The NRA has filed

a separate brief (PDF) opposing the NSA. In a press release announcing its position, the

organization best known for advocating expansive gun rights under the Second Amendment

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emphasizes that it supports the whole Constitution, including protections of free speech and

safeguards against overly intrusive government searches.

On closer examination, though, the NRAs concerns hew closely to its traditional priorities. The

NSAs surveillance, the gun group argues, could allow identification of NRA members,

supporters, potential members, and other persons with whom the NRA communicates,

potentially chilling their willingness to communicate with the NRA. In addition, brief contends,

tracking phone calls could allow the government to circumvent legal protections for

Americans privacy, such as laws that guard against the registration of guns or gun owners.

In other words, the NRA fears that the NSA would become a tool of gun-control

activists eager to frustrate the firearm proponents prolific fundraising and political advocacy.

Unlikely as that may seem, the brief provides a vivid example of how the NRA stokes anxiety

over federal conspiracies. The anxiety, in turn, propels the very fundraising the NRA purports to

see as threatened by counter-terrorism efforts.

Im an NRA member for research purposes. When I received the groups e-mail advertising the

alliance with the ACLU and Rep. Sensenbrenner, it was accompanied by a solicitation for a fresh

donation and a message from actor and gun activist Chuck Norris to triggerthe vote. This kind

of nimbleness illustrates why the NRA is so effective in rallying its loyalists, no matter what the

context.

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