The Republican National Committee passed a resolution condemning...

The Republican National Committee passed a resolution condemning National Security Agency surveillance, according to both its author and Diana Orrock, the Nevada national committeewoman who introduced it. The resolution was passed unanimously at the RNC meeting Friday in Washington. Conservative blogger Bryan Daugherty wrote the resolution, which had failed to pass at a previous RNC meeting. The resolution urges Republican members of Congress to back legislation amending Patriot Act Section 215, the state secrets privilege and the FISA Amendments Act “to make clear that blanket surveillance of the Internet activity, phone records and correspondence -- electronic, physical, and otherwise -- of any person residing in the U.S. is prohibited by law and that violations can be reviewed in adversarial proceedings before a public court,” it said (http://bit.ly/1d0Ts7b). Republicans in Congress should “call for a special committee to investigate, report, and reveal to the public the extent of this domestic spying,” the resolution said. Members should try to stop the surveillance programs, it said. “Now, armed with the new information fresh from the Snowden leaks as well as growing support from headlines created by politicians like Rand Paul and his class-action lawsuit, Diana Orrock will once again ask the RNC to request that Republican lawmakers support the effort to renounce the NSA’s unconstitutional surveillance program,” Daugherty wrote on the conservative website LibertyRoll last week (http://bit.ly/1mDf4vZ), saying Orrock now had 12 co-sponsors in introducing the resolution. “She says she has resubmitted this Resolution for consideration ‘because in these times of losing a little bit more of our freedom incrementally every day, we must continue to fight for and protect our constitutionally guaranteed 1st and 4th Amendment rights. I will never be content to trade my constitutional rights for what the government wants us to believe is security.'” The resolution had unanimously passed the RNC Resolution Committee earlier last week, Daugherty said.