Ted Cruz: Thin Justice Argument to Dismiss Rand Paul NSA Suit

Newsmax ^ | 08 May 2014 | Melanie Batley

[Cheerio]

Sen. Ted Cruz says a Justice Department request that a federal judge dismiss a class-action lawsuit filed by Sen. Rand Paul against the National Security Agency is based on "highly dubious" legal grounds.

Kentucky Republican Paul filed the suit in the aftermath of revelations about the agency’s mass collection of personal information through its top-secret phone and Internet surveillance program.

Texas Republican Cruz issued a statement on Wednesday after Justice Department lawyers argued the case should be dismissed because Paul could not prove that his phone records were collected by the agency nor did he offer "sufficient well-pleaded, non-conclusory allegations demonstrating that they have been injured because of the telephony metadata program," according to the Washington Examiner.

[Cheerio]

"The factual predicate for DOJ's claim, at least as you've described it, seems to be highly dubious given the repeated public statements of the administration that every American's cellphones' metadata records have been intercepted; and, indeed, the administration has responded to members of Congress by saying 'yes, members of Congress have had their records intercepted just like other citizens,'" Cruz told the Examiner.

[Regulator]

It’s entertaining, but why does a Senator need to sue a Federal Agency?

He needs to press Reid for hearings, subpoenas, and oversight.

In addition, push to pull the plug on their funding.

Reid refuses at his own peril: he ends up defending the Surveillance State that his own party supposedly opposes.

Between Bunkerville and Obstructing NSA inquiries, I’d say Reid’s tenure as Senate Majority leader would be pretty much over.

[Vaduz]

Highly dubious legal grounds has been going on for the last five years it’s par for this regime.