A unusually diverse coalition of activists sues the NSA
July 17th, 2013
What do marijuana advocates, Muslim activists, gun licensees, and environmental groups all have in common? They sued the NSA yesterday.
A big stack of advocacy groups all joined forces in a lawsuit against the NSA, the Justice Department, the FBI and the directors of the agencies for their recently revealed surveillance program that collects, stores, searches, and analyzes the phone records of millions of people.
The suit was being filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in Federal District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of 18 organizations from across the political spectrum based on the First Amendment right of association.
The suit comes after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked documents revealing the NSA surveillance program to monitor Internet and telephone activity.
The suit challenges what the plaintiffs describe as an “illegal and unconstitutional program of dragnet electronic surveillance,” outlining how the mass collection of the telephone records has a “chilling effect” on basic constitutional rights, including both the right to peaceably assemble and the right to petition for regress of grievances. Essentially, if people live in fear that they’ll be targeted by the government for political activism that’s apparent from their phone records, they’re rights have been stifled.
“Massive warrantless surveillance of law-abiding citizens has a profoundly negative impact on the constitutionally-protected right of association utilized by all those who seek to engage in public advocacy,” said Zahra Billoo, executive director of CAIR’s San Francisco Bay Area chapter, on of the plaintiffs in the case. “CAIR welcomes the opportunity to challenge NSA spying alongside a group of organizations with diverse viewpoints. Warrantless spying by the NSA and other federal agencies impacts all Americans.”
Although the plaintiffs come from all corners of the political battlefield, they are united in that they assemble groups of people to work toward changes in policy or laws, and use telephones to do it. The organizations include:
- First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles
- Bill of Rights Defense Committee
- California Association of Federal Firearms Licensees
- Council on American-Islamic Relations National, California, and Ohio
- Franklin Armory
- Free Press
- Free Software Foundation
- Greenpeace, Inc.
- Human Rights Watch
- Media Alliance
- National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, California Chapter
- Open Technology Institute
- People for the American Way
- Public Knowledge
- Students for a Sensible Drug Policy
- TechFreedom
- The Calguns Foundation
- Unitarian Universalist Service Commission
That list includes marijuana legalization and gun rights activists, Muslims and Christians, techies and environmentalists. Looks like people are waking up to the fact that the current political battle is not between right and left, but between people and State.
Check out our watch online page for a full listing of all Video on Demand networks that carry Silver Circle and find out about local theater showings of the film and other special events on our -->event page -->.
