Upholding System of Secret Surveillance, Federal Court Dismisses Lawsuit

This press release is also available at www.rutherford.org.

Filed by The Rutherford Institute, Wikipedia, ACLU Et Al. Over the NSA’s Spying Program

BALTIMORE, Md. — Despite extensive evidence that the government is systematically copying and substantially reviewing all international text-based communications, a federal court dismissed a lawsuit challenging the government’s mass surveillance programs brought by The Rutherford Institute, the ACLU, Wikipedia, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and other educational, legal, human rights and media organizations. In ruling that the coalition of national and international groups does not have standing to bring a First and Fourth Amendment lawsuit against the National Security Agency (NSA), the U.S. Department of Justice and their directors, the district court accepted the Obama administration’s arguments that the organizations do not have concrete evidence their communications have been monitored under the secret program.

The court’s memorandum opinion in Wikipedia et al. v. National Security Agency is available at www.rutherford.org.

“On any given day, the average American going about his daily business will be monitored, surveilled, spied on and tracked in more than 20 different ways, by both government and corporate eyes and ears,” said constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute and author of Battlefield America: The War on the American People. “Revelations about the NSA’s spying programs only scrape the surface in revealing the lengths to which government agencies and their corporate allies will go to conduct mass surveillance on Americans’ communications and transactions. Senator Ron Wyden was right when he warned, ‘If we do not seize this unique moment in our constitutional history to reform our surveillance laws and practices, we are all going to live to regret it.’”

The Patriot Act, the law used to justify mass government surveillance, is going to expire if it’s not reauthorized this week.

 These 50 emergency vigils are the most effective step we can take right now to stop any senator from thinking that maybe it’s ok to renew the Patriot Act. Find a vigil near you. If you’ve never taken action on surveillance before: this is the one to take.

~Tiff Cheng

The Patriot Act, the law used to justify mass government surveillance, is going to expire if it’s not reauthorized this week.

If Congress fumbles for the next few days, the Patriot Act will not be renewed — and right now, the vote is close enough that a big push by people like you and me can tip the scales and ensure the Patriot Act expires, dealing a death blow to unconstitutional NSA programs.

We’re joining with half a dozen other organizations including Demand Progress, Restore the Fourth, CREDO, MoveOn.org, and Free Press Action Fund to host 50 “EMERGENCY vigils to Sunset the Patriot Act” across the country tomorrow night, calling on senators to vote against reauthorization.

Click here to find a Sunset the Patriot Act vigil near you (as well as find out how your senator is leaning).

Here are the details:

WHAT: Emergency “Sunset the Patriot Act” vigils against mass surveillance – happening in 50 cities across the U.S. WHEN: 7 pm local time, Thursday, May 21st (roughly an hour before sunset) WHERE: Find your local event here. If you don’t see one and want to set one up outside another of your senators’ offices, reply to this email and let us know! BRING: A cell phone, laptop, tablet, and candles with the protestsign.org already pre-loaded. Feel free to bring any other signage you want — the main message is “Sunset the Patriot Act”.

Click here to find a Sunset the Patriot Act vigil near you (as well as find out how your senator is leaning).

News reports show that the Senate is all confused so they’re going with the plan of ramming through the bills. That’s because we have filibuster threats from at least two senators — Rand Paul and Ron Wyden — a looming expiration date, and confusion about the best course of business. And, if we have voices from all over the country calling on them to end the Patriot Act, we can make them falter and split and fall all over themselves. This is the time when doing nothing actually helps us.

That’s why action right now is critical — according to our whip count, dozens of senators are still on the fence, and protests across the country the day before the vote can prevent them from throwing their support behind the Patriot Act. If we can prevent these last senators from siding with the NSA, the Patriot Act will expire.

After all these years of fighting against how the Patriot Act has torn up our freedoms without making us any safer, it all comes down to the next couple of days. This is our week to end the Patriot Act.

Click here to join a Sunset the Patriot Act vigil near you.

If you haven’t done anything yet to push back against government mass surveillance, please take action now. There are just 2 days left at our best and final chance at reforming surveillance for years to come.

Thanks for all you do,

Fight for the Future

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