February, 01 2011, 11:00pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Phone: 415-436-9333 x177,Email:,press@eff.org
Contact the Senate Judiciary Committee Today to Support Reforms to PATRIOT Act!
WASHINGTON
If your Senator is on the Senate Judiciary Committee, tell them to support reform of the PATRIOT Act and demand that Congress do more to protect Americans' civil liberties! Just this week, EFF published a report revealing the FBI's systematic misuse of its NSL authority since 2001, highlighting the urgent need for new checks on the government's PATRIOT powers. The USA PATRIOT Act Sunset Extension Act of 2011 (S.193) will be marked up tomorrow, so it is critical that you send a message now.
As several provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act are set to expire at the end of February, and Congress regrettably rushes to renew them, there is once again a new opportunity to press for meaningful reforms to the dangerously broad spying powers granted to the government under that law.
On Thursday February 3rd, the Senate Judiciary Committee will begin considering The USA PATRIOT Act Sunset Extension Act of 2011 (S.193). The reforms in that bill would introduce some oversight and accountability when it comes to how the government uses its broad surveillance powers under the PATRIOT Act. The bill especially focuses on curbing abuse of "National Security Letters" or "NSLs", secret demands for communications and business records issued by the FBI without any court oversight.
Just this week, EFF released a new report based on over 2,500 pages of FBI documents obtained in Freedom of Information litigation, revealing the FBI's systematic abuse of civil liberties since 2001. The EFF report, "Patterns of Misconduct", documents how the FBI has misused its NSL authority thousands of times over the past decade, highlighting the urgent need for new checks on the government's PATRIOT powers.
In particular, S. 193 would:
- require the government to justify its need for NSLs -- and for so-called "Section 215" secret records demands and "pen register and trap and trace" communications monitoring orders issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court -- with a statement of facts explaining why the information it seeks is relevant to its investigation.
- make clear that the recipient of an NSL can immediately go to court to challenge the gag order that prevents them from discussing the demand.
- require a heightened showing of need by the government before it can obtain library records using Section 215 orders.
- create new "minimization" requirements to insure that the government doesn't hold onto data that it doesn't need for its investigations.
- introduce strong new requirements for the government to report on how it's using its PATRIOT powers, and require auditing on the use of those powers by the Justice Department's Inspector General.
- restrict "sneak and peek" secret searches by shortening the time that the government can delay notice of a search from 30 days to 7 days.
- avoid permanently renewing the three expiring PATRIOT provisions but would instead reset those provisions -- and, importantly, PATRIOT's expansions of NSL powers -- to expire in 2013.
If your senator is on the Senate Judiciary Committee, you can make an impact by sending a message today about S.193. Support PATRIOT reform, oppose permanent extension of the PATRIOT Act, and demand that Congress act now to protect Americans' civil liberties!
Senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee, alphabetical by state:
- Sen. Jeff Sessions, Alabama
- Sen. Jon Kyl, Arizona
- Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California
- Sen. Senator Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut
- Sen. Christopher Coons, Delaware
- Sen. Dick Durbin, Illinois
- Sen. Chuck Grassley, Iowa
- Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota
- Sen. Al Franken, Minnesota
- Sen. Chuck Schumer, New York
- Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma
- Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Rhode Island
- Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina
- Sen. John Cornyn, Texas
- Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, Vermont
- Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, Utah
- Sen. Senator Mike Lee, Utah
- Sen. Herb Kohl, Wisconsin
More info:
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading nonprofit organization defending civil liberties in the digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF champions user privacy, free expression, and innovation through impact litigation, policy analysis, grassroots activism, and technology development. EFF's mission is to ensure that technology supports freedom, justice, and innovation for all people of the world.
(415) 436-9333LATEST NEWS
Privacy Defenders Decry 'Spy Draft' in Section 702 Renewal Advanced by Senate
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Civil liberties defenders on Thursday decried the U.S. Senate's advancement of the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act, which critics say lawmakers are trying to ram through without protection against warrantless surveillance and with a provision that would effectively make every American a spy whether they like it or not.
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Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)—who
said earlier this week that the bill would dragoon the American people into becoming "an agent for Big Brother"—on Thursday argued that "this issue demands a debate about meaningful reforms, not a rushed vote to rubber-stamp more warrantless government surveillance powers."
In an attempt to tackle the warrantless surveillance issue, Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) on Thursday proposed a RISAA amendment that would require the government to obtain a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court before accessing Americans' private communications.
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The arrests of dozens of Columbia University and Barnard College students on Thursday "galvanized" other supporters of Palestinian rights on the campuses, as hundreds of students occupied the school's western lawn after New York City police filled at least two buses with protesters who had been detained for setting up an encampment.
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Columbia President Minouche Shafik informed the campus community on Thursday that she had authorized the police to clear the encampment.
As it has been in the past, the school has become a center of anti-war protests—and crackdowns by school officials and the police—since Israel began its bombardment of Gaza in October.
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On Thursday, police and Columbia employees took down about 50 tents that had been up for more than a day and disposed of them in trash cans and alleyways—but The New York Times reported later that "demonstrators repitched a couple of tents, and ... recovered the main signage from the encampment as well," while hundreds of students were "still gathered and chanting on the south side of the grass."
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U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), whose daughter, Isra Hirsi, was among the Barnard students who were suspended on Thursday for participating in the encampment protest, questioned Shafik about whether antisemitic protests have actually taken place at Columbia, prompting the president to say there have not.
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