THE HILL: Patriot Act’s Fate Now In Rand Paul’s Hands.

The Senate is scheduled to hold a rare Sunday evening vote on three Patriot Act provisions mere hours before they expire at midnight. The late hour — and lack of a clean path forward — means any single senator has an undue amount of leverage to gum up the works.

After staking his reputation on fighting the National Security Agency (NSA) to the bitter end, the Kentucky Republican and White House contender now finds himself with the best chance yet to hobble it.

On Saturday morning, he pledged to take no prisoners.

“Tomorrow, I will force the expiration of the NSA illegal spy program,” he said in a statement distributed by his presidential campaign.

“I do not do this to obstruct,” he added. “I do it to build something better, more effective, more lasting, and more cognizant of who we are as Americans.”

If he wanted to, Paul certainly could doom parts of the post-9/11 counterterrorism law — at least temporarily.

“It requires unanimous consent to get anything done by midnight — that gives him a lot of leverage,” said Nathan White, the senior legislative manager at Access, an advocacy group that supports reforming the law.

Well, stay tuned.