Donna Edwards is the newest member of the U.S. House of Representatives, having won the special election to replace Al Wynn as the representative of the 4th congressional district in Maryland. Edwards has made a good start. In one of her first votes in Congress, Edwards voted against the FISA Amendments Act.
The FISA Amendments Act, if you’ve been ignoring the news for the last week, does the following:
- Allows massive dragnet electronic spying against the American people – think Total Information Awareness – without any search warrant, congressional oversight, or need for evidence of any suspected criminal wrongdoing
- Allows physical searches of Americans’ homes without any search warrant, congressional oversight, or need for evidence of any suspected criminal wrongdoing
- Gives retroactive legal immunity to corporations that broke the law by giving private information on millions of Americans over to George W. Bush – in violation of their customer privacy agreements
When other Democrats gave in to the influence of fear and corruption, Congresswoman Edwards stood firm. She voted no to the effort to thwart the fourth amendment in the Bill of Rights.
Explaining her vote, Donna Edwards said, “The constituents that I represent feel strongly that we can not comprise when it comes to protecting our civil liberties or providing retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that have broken the law. No one denies the importance of combating terrorism and ensuring the protection of the United States and its citizens, but we can not sacrifice fundamental, constitutional rights in the name of fighting terrorism.”
Stand with Donna Edwards. Take action now! Call your two U.S. Senators to support the filibuster against the FISA Amendments Act.
