This is a rush transcript from \"Hannity,\" February 12, 2014. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated. <\/p>\n
SEAN HANNITY, HOST:Welcome back to \"Hannity.\" After months of threatening legal action against the Obama administration, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul along with Freedom Works has filed a class action lawsuit over the National Security Agency's domestic spying law. The suit named President Obama, director of National Intelligence James Clapper, NSA Director Keith Alexander, and FBI Director James Comey. <\/p>\n
Calling it one of the largest class action lawsuits in history, the senator alleges that the NSA surveillance program violates the Fourth Amendment which prohibits unreasonable search and seizure. Here to explain, the man himself, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul. Senator, welcome back good to see you. <\/p>\n
SEN. RAND PAUL, R - KY:Hey, Sean, thanks for having me. <\/p>\n
HANNITY:The legal action is officially entitled \"Rand Paul Versus Barack Obama.\" And from what I read you're kind of hitting the ground running you have over 350,000 plaintiffs. You expect millions of Americans will join this? <\/p>\n
PAUL:Well, the interesting thing about this is the class could include anybody who has a cellphone or anybody who has a landline. So it is really virtually everyone in the United States. And I think that illustrates the problem, is that a single warrant should not apply to so many people. <\/p>\n
The Fourth Amendment said that if you want a warrant to look at someone's records to invade their privacy, you have to name the person, the place and the items. You can't just say OK, we're going to search everybody's home in Washington D.C. or Bowling Green, Kentucky. You have to name the person. That was to protect our privacy. And so we really think the NSA program has gone way overboard, and we want a decision in an open court, in the Supreme Court where there is open debate. We think that is the only thing consistent with a constitutional republic. <\/p>\n
HANNITY:I would support data-mining - and I have supported data-mining of terrorists, of suspects. The law specifically prohibits the spying against Americans. I have talked to the author of the bill - Jim Sensenbrenner -- numerous times. This is not what it was designed for, intended for, explicitly says you cannot do, doesn't it? <\/p>\n
PAUL:The president when he talked about privacy recently, he said this was like the history of Paul Revere warning us. But Paul Revere was not saying the Americans are coming. He was saying the British were coming. It was about a foreign invasion. <\/p>\n
So really I think he has it wrong. And the fact that he thinks he can look at all of our records without a cause, without probable cause or suspicion, see, that is what warrants are based on. You go to a judge and the police say to the judge we think this person robbed the store, we think this person is a murderer or we think this person is a terrorist. They present evidence because this protects us from them from going into everyone's home or invading everyone's papers. This is a big and very important and to me a momentous constitutional issue. And so far it has only been decided in secret. We have these courts called FISA courts which are national security courts. But this is a question of the Constitution, and it needs to lift the veil of secrecy and needs to be debated in public. <\/p>\n
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