Montana 2006 3-way Senate Debate: on Civil Rights

Stan Jones: Patriot Act cost us our Fourth Amendment rights

TESTER: It deals with the freedoms that so many people have fought and died for. If we want to get serious about the War on Terror, we need to make the investments to fight the war on terror. We ought not be taking rights away from honest citizens.

JONES: e've lost our Fourth Amendment rights; now there's no protection to our privacy. Senator, you're telling me I'm guilty of being a terrorist first. All you have to do is accuse me, and the Patriot Act applies to me, and I'm guilty and have to prove I'm innocent. You've turned our legal system upside down. We have to turn this off.

BURNS: The Patriot Act is a tool that is in place now for drug kingpins and organized crime. Why don't you want that extended to terrorists? If you repeal it, there goes the Meth Control Act, and the ability to monitor international phone calls from known numbers of people who want to kill us.