To the Editor:

On Friday, Dec. 28, the U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly to re-authorize the FISA Amendments Act without further amendments, which would lend the barest modicum of transparency to the act. The act allows for warrantless wiretaps through 2017, including domestic communications and email.

Senator Dick Durbin, along with 22 of his peers, took a moral stand against this gross violation of our privacy. And though his efforts were quashed by those who would surrender essential liberty for temporary security, this voter applauds Sen. Durbin’s stand.