Udall's defeat a setback
in the fight for our liberty

Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado has served the nation well with his diligent opposition to expansion of central government power at the expense of traditional American liberties, as spelled out in the Bill of Rights. His defeat is unfortunate, though predictable. Friends of liberty have few allies these days.

Background From Wikipedia:

Udall has been an opponent of the National Security Agency's mass surveillance programs. Following disclosure of the agency's mass surveillance of Americans, Udall has been an advocate for reform. Udall, along with Senators Ron Wyden and Rand Paul, published an Op-ed in the Los Angeles Times expressing their collective desire to "end the dragnet — and to affirm that we can keep our nation secure without trampling on and abandoning Americans' constitutional rights."

Udall has expressed support for permitting Edward Snowden to return to America to "make his case." After reports that the CIA had spied on senators, Udall called for the resignation of Agency Director John O. Brennan.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, Udall. who served one term in the House, was one of 66 House members, to vote against the Patriot Act. In 2011, Udall voted against reauthorizing that measure. In July 2014, Udall voted against the CISPA bill, which, if enacted, would allow for the sharing of internet traffic information between the U.S. government and technology and manufacturing companies. Udall expressed concern that that bill "lacks adequate protections for the privacy rights."

During the 2011 debate over the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 (NDAA), Udall introduced an amendment to end the practice of military detention of American citizens indefinitely and without trial. In response to the amendment's introduction, the Obama administration threatened to veto the bill. The amendment was rejected by a vote of 60–38 (with 2 abstaining). Udall subsequently voted for the authorization measure in the joint session of Congress that passed it, though he remained "extremely troubled" by the detainee provision. The senator promised to "push Congress to conduct the maximum amount of oversight possible."

Udall has supported PRISM, a controversial clandestine anti-terrorism mass electronic surveillance data mining program launched in 2007 by the NSA. Even so, he has favored limits on the Patriot Act. "The Patriot Act should be reformed so Americans' phone records do not get indiscriminately swept up in a federal government database," the senator has said.