The RESTRICT Act is Not The Patriot Act, But It Is Still Bad (BTN #16)
Biden Tracking Newsletter #16 Day 797 (3/27) through Day 803 (4/2)
This is the sixteenth edition of the Biden Tracking newsletter. This week, the Biden Administration announced they would not veto a Republican-led bill to the COVID national emergency and auctioned off an Italy-sized portion of the Gulf of Mexico for Oil and Gas drilling. But the main story of the week was the viral discussion of the RESTRICT Act bill that would ban TikTok in the U.S. This week's newsletter will focus specifically on that bill. It is Tuesday, April 4th, 2023, day 805 of the Biden Presidency.
If you’re interested in learning more about topics in my newsletter, everything underlined contains a link to a news article that goes into further detail on the subject.
There has been lots of viral talk about the RESTRICT Act this week. Many viral videos and tweets suggested that this bill if passed (and the Biden Administration has seemingly expressed their support for it), would amount to another Patriot Act. This week, I was able to talk with a lawyer friend of mine who was able to, without sensationalism, actually break down this bill for me.
The first thing that I should make clear is that this is a very bad bill. The bill weaponizes anti-Chinese rhetoric and unfairly targets many socialist countries (Venezuela and Cuba specifically). What is especially worrying is the broadness of the language used in the bill, which will make it easy for Government agencies to weaponize it even further. My lawyer friend confirmed to me that it is entirely possible, the way the bill is currently written, that the social media data of people using any platform covered by the bill (which is only TikTok at this point) could be accessed by the federal government. The lawyer also confirmed that a person could be fined or even imprisoned if they attempted to access a banned platform in the U.S.
But the lawyer also made it clear that he didn’t that the bill would likely be used that way, even in its broad current form. The most important thing to understand is that this bill only applies to specific companies being targeted by the authority of these laws. These companies also have to be connected to a “foreign adversary”. Your data on Twitter, for example, can not be targeted under this law. That is what, in me and my lawyer's opinion, differentiates this from the Patriot Act. There has to be a foreign transaction, by a defined foreign adversary, for a relatively large social media company, for this law to apply. Your social media data, with the exception, of TikTok, is safe. Even in the case of TikTok though, the government or law enforcement cannot easily access private data like they could under the Patriot Act. They would likely have to go through a court, where privacy and First Amendment challenges would be very likely. Similarly, the fine is not designed for private citizens using a VPN to access TikTok, but TikTok itself continues to operate in the U.S. after a ban. My lawyer thinks it would be incredibly unlikely that the government would go after private VPN-using citizens, under this act.
So, no I do not think that this law is anything close to the Patriot Act. The data it does allow the government to access is limited, and only applies to certain platforms, though it does apply to TikTok. Charges against people using a VPN to avoid a TikTok ban are also unlikely. (Think about how many people use illegal streaming sites to watch live sporting events.) But, it still is unfairly targeting certain countries and is incredibly broad.
In other news…
Sunday, March 26th (Day 766) (Missed from last week)
No Meaningful Changes to the DOJ’s Approach to Death Row Under Biden
I missed this last week. Last Sunday, the AP reported that lawyers for Death Row inmates said they had seen no meaningful change to the DOJ’s approach under President Biden. During the 2020 campaign, Biden promised to end the death penalty on the federal level and to work at ending it in states that still carry out executions. Not only has President Biden not taken any steps to fulfill his promise, but Biden’s DOJ is fighting just as hard to maintain the sentences of death row inmates. In one case, the Biden DOJ refused to allow new evidence after lawyers claimed a death row inmate had an intellectual disability. It should be noted that the DOJ under Biden did restore written guidance emphasizing that staff can be proactive in fixing egregious errors in capital cases, but no staff has yet invoked that option.
Monday, March 27th (Day 797)
In November, ICE accidentally posted the names, birthdates, nationalities, and detention locations of more than 6,000 immigrants who claimed to be fleeing torture and persecution on its website. Asylum-seekers sued DHS for monetary damages. The Biden Administration, as part of their defense, argued that Asylum-seekers are not entitled to sue because the Privacy Act only applies to US citizens and green-card holders. They want a judge to dismiss the lawsuit. The action by ICE very obviously put these Asylum seekers in danger, the fact that it is even a question that these Asylum-seekers get some sort of retribution for the leak is extremely disappointing.
Tuesday, March 28th (Day 798)
Biden Will Not Veto a Republican-led Bill that Would End the COVID-19 Emergency.
On Tuesday, President Biden confirmed he would not veto a GOP-led effort to end the COVID-19 national emergency. It is important to note that the national emergency is not the same as the COVID Public Health emergency. The distinction is that a public health emergency allows the President to ease certain laws and regulations to make it easier to address the emergency and allow some federal grant money, while a national emergency triggers a rapid outlay of federal money to address the emergency, and gives power to the President to do things like activate the national guard. The White House said they opposed the bill, going as far as saying “an abrupt end to the emergency declarations would create wide-ranging chaos and uncertainty throughout the health care system." It is not clear why, despite these statements, the President still plans on signing the bill.
Wednesday, March 29th (Day 799)
On Wednesday, the Guardian reported that the Biden Administration would be auctioning off a portion of the Gulf of Mexico the size of Italy, for oil and gas drilling. A total of 73.3m acres were auctioned off. The Biden Administration claims that the terms of the Inflation Reduction Act, which included billions of dollars in support for renewable energy projects and electric car subsidies, forced them to auction off the land. But activist groups say that such a large area did not need to be put up for sale.
Thursday, March 30th (Day 800)
Biden Says He Will Veto a GOP-led Resolution That Would Roll Back More D.C. Criminal Justice Reforms
On Thursday the Biden Administration said they would veto a GOP-led resolution that would overturn more police reforms in D.C. The reforms include a chokehold ban, limits on the use of deadly force, releasing footage from cameras worn by officers, and new officer training. President Biden did say “he does not support every provision in the D.C. policing bill." The Congressional Black Caucus lobbied especially hard for the Biden Administration to oppose the bill.
Other News: