Sen. Rand Paul accomplished something worthwhile when, almost single-handedly, he saw to it that Section 215 of the Patriot Act expired. For that he deserves our heartfelt thanks.

But where does the expiration now leave us opponents of indiscriminate government spying on innocent people? Not in such a great place. Shortly after 215 disappeared, the Senate passed the House's watered-down USA Freedom Act, which perhaps puts some meaningful, though modest restrictions on the government's access to our communications data, but about which the civil-liberties community properly has decidedly mixed feelings. With or without the so-called Freedom Act, however, the government's ability to conduct mass surveillance, unrestrained by the "probable cause" standard in the Constitution, lives on. The NSA and kindred agencies have had many more arrows in their quiver than Section 215. An appeals court had already ruled that what the government was doing – collecting everyone's "metadata" – exceeded what 215 appeared to permit. Yet the NSA proceeded anyway

As privacy watchdog Julian Sanchez writes, "While 'Sunset the Patriot Act' makes for an appealing slogan, the fact remains that the vast majority of the Patriot Act is permanent – and includes an array of overlapping authorities that will limit the effect of an expiration."