Updated 1:52 p.m. Jan. 6 | Sen. Rand Paul announced Friday night his intent to lead a class-action lawsuit seeking to stop some controversial National Security Agency programs. And he hopes to raise some money for the effort along the way. The intent is to get "hundreds of thousands of Americans" to sign on to a lawsuit contesting the constitutionality of having a single warrant apply to everyone's phone records, the Kentucky Republican said in making the announcement on Fox News. "We think everybody in America who has a cellphone would be eligible for this class-action suit," Paul said. "If any of your viewers have a cellphone, they just have to go to my Facebook tonight and they can sign up to be part of the lawsuit. We want to overwhelm the government." Paul appears to be asking for both additional complainants for the lawsuit and financial support for the effort, with the same pitch appearing on RandPaul2016.com and the RAND PAC website. That group is a leadership PAC. A separate RAND PAC 2016 registered as a super PAC in May 2013, but that group has since disbanded and is not affiliated with the Paul effort. (more…)
