WaPo: Subpoena bill would curtail secretive tool used to target government critics

WaPo: Subpoena bill would curtail secretive tool used to target government critics by John Woodrow Cox (“The bipartisan legislation, which comes after a Washington Post investigation, would also limit the federal government’s ability to obtain phone records without a judge’s order.”):

A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers has introduced legislation that would make it harder for federal investigators to obtain phone records and also would prevent the government from weaponizing a secretive legal instrument it has used to target critics. The effort, led by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) and Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-New York), comes after The Washington Post investigated the Department of Homeland Security’s use of administrative subpoenas, which federal agencies can issue to collect Americans’ private personal information without an order from a judge or grand jury. The Subpoena Abuse Prevention Act, co-sponsored by three Democrats and three Republicans, calls for sweeping reform to how the government deploys administrative, grand jury and trial subpoenas to obtain communications records. It would force government officials, under penalty of perjury, to certify that they won’t use subpoenas to monitor or retaliate against people exercising their right to free speech or other constitutionally protected activities.