The clock is ticking on government surveillance programs as the Patriot Act approaches the end of its lifecycle still lacking a Senate renewal. The Patriot Act has stood as an enemy to freedom and the Constitution since its introduction in 2001, and the Progressive has been fighting it ever since. The Act's sweeping phone surveillance programs are finally illegal, but some of the issues addressed in Nat Hentoff's December, 2001, editorial titled "Why should we care? It's only the Constitution," still need solving.
"This will be one of our severest tests yet to rescue the Constitution from our government. Benjamin Franklin has been quoted a lot lately: 'They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.' "
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Tanner Cole is an intern at The Progressive and a rising senior at Western Kentucky University.