{"id":64114,"date":"2026-05-21T14:59:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T19:59:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=64114"},"modified":"2026-05-21T15:16:39","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T20:16:39","slug":"wapo-subpoena-bill-would-curtail-secretive-tool-used-to-target-government-critics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=64114","title":{"rendered":"WaPo: Subpoena bill would curtail secretive tool used to target government critics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>WaPo: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/nation\/2026\/05\/21\/us-lawmakers-propose-bill-curtail-administrative-subpoenas\/\">Subpoena bill would curtail secretive tool used to target government critics<\/a> by John Woodrow Cox (\u201cThe bipartisan legislation, which comes after a Washington Post investigation, would also limit the federal government\u2019s ability to obtain phone records without a judge\u2019s order.\u201d):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>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\u2019s use of administrative subpoenas, which federal agencies can issue to collect Americans\u2019 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\u2019t use subpoenas to monitor or retaliate against people exercising their right to free speech or other constitutionally protected activities.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WaPo: Subpoena bill would curtail secretive tool used to target government critics by John Woodrow Cox (\u201cThe bipartisan legislation, which comes after a Washington Post investigation, would also limit the federal government\u2019s ability to obtain phone records without a judge\u2019s &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=64114\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-subpoenas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64114"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64116,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64114\/revisions\/64116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}