2024 election
The PATRIOT Act Turns 23: Constitutional Subversion Begets Political Repression
In the hands of an authoritarian president, the PATRIOT Act could be wielded as an instrument of domestic terror and political repression at scale.
Section 702
TSA
The 118th Congress's Unfinished Business: Civil Liberties Protections
The institutional threats to our constitutional rights left unaddressed by the federal legislature are major, long standing, and perfectly exploitable by a would-be authoritarian like Trump.
political repression
American Big Brother: A Century of Surveillance
Sometimes, it's helpful to look at a phenomenon over time to understand how pervasive it is in reality. That's especially true of surveillance-enabled political repression.
Al Qaeda
Memorial Day Birthday: No-Such-Agency Turns 65
One day before Memorial Day and with little fanfare, on May 29, 1959, President Eisenhower signed into law the National Security Agency Act. It's been spying on foreigners, and Americans, ever since. Thirty-three days after my 18th birthday, I raised my right hand and took an oath to
Congress
Radical FISA Expansion Clears Congress, Will Become Law
A more than year-long battle over America's most controversial and abused surveillance power ended in total victory for Surveillance State defenders. To reverse the damage, civil libertarians must build an electoral capacity to eject from Congress those who subvert the Bill of Rights.