On Thursday June 6, British news source The Guardian released a court order revealing that certain types of American phone records were being gathered by the U.S. government from Verizon customers.

Within a few hours of the news breaking, Montana Senior Senator Max Baucus released the following statement:

“This type of intrusion on law-abiding Americans is exactly why I voted to get rid of the secret surveillance program last year. Everyone wants to do their part to keep America safe, but that doesn’t give the government free reign to ignore civil liberties. I have very serious concerns with law-abiding citizens getting swept up in surveillance that is meant for terrorists. If the government really needs this type of information to keep the country safe, they ought to be able to make their case in an open and transparent courtroom instead of behind closed doors.”

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