Arguably one of the most influential and progressive senators currently serving in Washington, D.C., is Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont — the sole Democratic senator serving the people of Vermont.

Supporters of the senator describe him as a leader in defending Americans’ civil rights and liberties and point out that Leahy was one of only 22 U.S. senators who voted against the Iraq War in 2002. But although Leahy may be more progressive in his stance on some issues such as marijuana, privacy, education and the environment, the senator’s stance on some issues — such as Internet freedoms — leaves many liberals cringing.

As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Leahy held a hearing earlier this year regarding the “Conflicts Between State and Federal Marijuana Laws,” and has pushed a piece of legislation that would allow states to decide for themselves whether or not they wanted to legalize marijuana.

While Leahy’s home state of Vermont has not legalized marijuana for either medical or recreational use, the senator called for the hearing last month and said he believes state laws legalizing marijuana for adult or medical use “should be respected” by the federal government.

In an interview with the Atlantic in September, Leahy, a former prosecutor, said, “I’ve long urged the federal government to stay away from states where they have legalized the use of marijuana, or legalized medical marijuana, and the reason I am holding my hearings is to get a very clear understanding of what they want to do.

“We only have so many resources for law enforcement and … to waste time on these minor marijuana measures or waste time on marijuana in states where it is legal makes absolutely no sense.”

Though Vermont has yet to legalize marijuana, the state has legalized hemp. Since there is also a federal ban on hemp, some lawmakers have pushed for the nullification of the federal ban on marijuana’s cannabis-spawned cousin. However, Leahy has not been the most vocal supporter of hemp legalization efforts nationally or in the state.

However, Kevin Sabet, director of the Drug Policy Institute, has expressed concerns about Leahy’s plan to legalize marijuana, cautioning the senator to consider the effects legalization would have on a variety of issues ranging from children’s health to foreign relations.

“Anyone who has been to Colorado since 2009 can get a sense of what full legalization looks like already. Mass advertising, promotion, using items that are attractive to kids – like ‘medical marijuana lollipops,’ ‘Ring Pots,’ ‘Pot-Tarts’ etc. – are all characteristics of current policy,” Sabet said. “What has been the result of this de facto legalization for kids? For one, drug-related referrals for high school students testing positive for marijuana have increased.”

Historic and progressive legislation

In addition to pushing for marijuana legalization, Leahy has worked with other senators, such as Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), to author the Justice Safety Valve Act, which would allow judges to issue a sentence below the current “mandatory minimums.”

Leahy also made history this fall when he held another Senate Judiciary Committee meeting to discuss a piece of legislation that determines whether or not a person is a journalist, in a bill designed by Congress to give federal protection to journalists from being forced to disclose the identities of their confidential sources.

But the legislation, the Free Flow of Information Act of 2013, comes with a catch. In order for a person to be protected under the bill, one must first meet the criteria for being termed a “journalist” — and even then, journalists will not be protected in all situations.

Though freedom of speech — which includes the printed word — is protected under the First Amendment, media shield laws are supposed to go above and beyond in terms of protecting a journalist from being forced to disclose confidential information and sources.

Leahy said he was in favor of the legislation because, as he put it, “one of the things that protect democracy is the free flow of information,” adding that the public learned valuable information about the NSA after Edward Snowden released classified documents earlier this year.

Most recently, Leahy has made a name for himself when he announced he had co-authored a piece of legislation along with Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.) that would “restore Americans’ privacy rights by ending the government’s dragnet collection of phone records and requiring greater oversight, transparency, and accountability with respect to domestic surveillance authorities.”

Known as the USA FREEDOM Act, the legislation would “end the dragnet collection of Americans’ phone records under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act — which allows the FBI to order any person or entity to hand over any tangible item to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities — and ensures that other authorities cannot be used to justify similar dragnet collection.”

What is unique about this bill is that Leahy and Sensenbrenner were both primary authors of the Patriot Act, the piece of legislation that the Freedom Act seeks to alter.

On Nov. 6, the senator announced in a press release that the Senate Judiciary Committee would hold a third oversight hearing on the government’s use of surveillance authorities later this month, on Nov. 20.

“The intelligence community faces a trust deficit, and I am particularly concerned that the NSA has strayed and overreached beyond its core missions,” Leahy said in a statement.

“One important step toward rebuilding that trust would be for the NSA to spend less of its time collecting data on innocent Americans, and more on keeping our nation’s secrets safe and holding its own accountable.”

However, in an opinion piece for Politico, Leahy noted that Congress has to have some surveillance practices in order to keep the country safe.

Pledge to defend Hollywood

Though Leahy has caught the attention of the American public most recently for his popular stance on some issues, the senator also has received flack for his stance on online piracy issues and related support for the SOPA and PIPA legislation.

In 2011, Leahy introduced the Protect IP Act, which sought to “protect the investment American companies make in developing brands and creating content and will protect the jobs associated with those investments.”

The bill would have given the Department of Justice the ability to bring down foreign websites “dedicated to infringement” without first having a trial or a hearing, since the law didn’t require the judge hear any defense from a website’s operator.

Under Leahy’s bill, the government would have had no obligation to even pretend to be proceeding toward a trial in order to keep a site suppressed indefinitely.

“Can the government be trusted to get this stuff right?” said Andrew Bridges, a lawyer with Fenwick & West. “I think the obvious answer is no. There’s a reason why we have trials.”

According to the Huffington Post, Leahy is currently Hollywood’s favorite Washington lawmaker, while according to data compiled by Center for Responsive Politics, two of Leahy’s biggest campaign contributors are Time Warner and Disney.

“Hollywood and the recording industry have a one-item agenda. You can’t say to them, ‘If you go softer on this, I’ll give you that,’ because there’s no ‘that’ for them,” said Gigi Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge, a leading nonprofit on Internet freedom issues and a staunch opponent of SOPA.

Hollywood has such an affinity for Leahy that Time Warner has even given him cameo appearances in Batman movies.

Leahy spokesman David Carle defended the senator’s film career, saying that “Batman’s connection to Vermont is a great thing that spans many years.”

“The Batman character has been one of Patrick Leahy’s lifelong passions, and it has spawned and energized an enduring bond to Vermont. By now this legacy includes collaboration with his crusade against landmines and helping to protect children in conflict zones, as well as ongoing help for the children’s library where he developed a lifelong love of reading.”