Category Archives: Constitution
EFF: Campaign to End NSA Warrantless Surveillance Surges Past 500,000 Signers
Over five hundred thousand people have signed onto the Stop Watching Us campaign, a nonpartisan, grassroots campaign opposing the dragnet surveillance programs of the National Security Agency (NSA). Galvanized by newly surfaced evidence confirming the NSA’s surveillance of the phone records and Internet activity of individuals in the United States and abroad, the Stop Watching Us coalition is seeking public accountability and tangible reform to rein in unconstitutional surveillance.
—–
Click below for the full story and an opportunity to support Stop Watching Us.
US News: Blackout: Defense Department Blocks All Articles About NSA Leaks From ‘Millions’ of Computers
The Department of Defense is blocking online access to news reports about classified National Security Agency documents made public by Edward Snowden. The blackout affects all of the department’s computers and is part of a department-wide directive.
“Any website that runs information that the Department of Defense still considers classified” is affected, Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Damien Pickart told U.S. News in a phone interview.
According to Pickart, news websites that re-report information first published by The Guardian or other primary sources are also affected.
“If that particular website runs an article that our filters determine has classified information… the particular content on that website will remain inaccessible,” he said.
Pickart said the blackout affects “millions” of computers on “all Department of Defense networks and systems.”
—————-
Click below for the full article.
Video: Are all Americans potential terrorists?
Reuters: Gay marriage gets big boost in two Supreme Court rulings
The U.S. Supreme Court delivered a landmark victory for gay rights on Wednesday by forcing the federal government to recognize same-sex marriages in states where it is legal and paving the way for it in California, the most populous state.
As expected, however, the court fell short of a broader ruling endorsing a fundamental right for gay people to marry, meaning that there will be no impact in the more than 30 states that do not recognize gay marriage.
The two cases, both decided on 5-4 votes, concerned the constitutionality of a key part of a federal law, the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), that denied benefits to same-sex married couples, and a voter-approved California state law enacted in 2008, called Proposition 8, that banned gay marriage.
The court struck down Section 3 of DOMA, which limited the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman for the purposes of federal benefits, as a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the law.
——-
Click below for the full article.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/26/us-usa-court-gaymarriage-idUSBRE95P06W20130626
Video: Police Officer Blows His Top Because Citizen Knows His Rights
Electronic Frontier Foundation: Pelosi Faces Questions, Criticism about NSA Surveillance at Netroots Nation
At the Netroots Nation conference this weekend, Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was questioned publicly about her stance on NSA spying. While she was quick to defend the program as markedly different from the warrantless wiretapping program established under President Bush, she also noted that more needed to be done to improve transparency around the program.
Pelosi’s comments were met with skepticism and disapproval from at least some members of the audience. Marc Perkel, a small business owner and technology activist, interrupted Pelosi when she was talking about finding a balance between security and civil liberties. According to Politico, Marc Perkel yelled, “It’s not a balance. It’s not constitutional!…No secret laws!”
Perkel urged Pelosi to “Talk to your sys admin” – a comment he later clarified as a push for Pelosi to better understand the technology behind the NSA’s surveillance.
Perkel was escorted out of the luncheon amid cries from other conference goers to “Let him stay.”
Pelosi assured the audience she welcomed the debate and spoke warmly of several bills in Congress that are a response to the NSA surveillance programs. She also stated that she had reason to believe that President Obama would be making an announcement about the FISA court order in the next few days. Her comments on NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden violating the law were met with boos from the crowd.
Below, find pictures from the event. You can see watch the entire speech here, discussion of NSA spying begins at 44:00.
EFF is urging individuals to speak out against NSA spying by signing the StopWatching.us petition and (most importantly) calling members of Congress.
———————-
Click below for the full article on EFF’s website.
Reason.com: Andrew Napolitano Asks, Where’s Fidelity to the Constitution When We Need It?
When Snowden began his work for Booz Allen Hamilton, he took two oaths. The first oath was to keep secret the classified materials to which he would be exposed in his work as a spy; the second oath was to uphold the Constitution. Shortly after Snowden began his work with the NSA, he came to the realization that he could not comply with both oaths. He realized that by keeping secret what he learned, writes Andrew Napolitano, he was keeping the American public in the dark about what its government is doing outside the Constitution in order to control the public.
Politicians as diverse as Republican Speaker John Boehner and Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein called Snowden a traitor. So did former Vice President Dick Cheney, and President Obama said that for once Cheney’s words were music to his ears. On the other hand, former Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Republican Sen. Rand Paul, my Fox News colleague Bill O’Reilly and I have all referred to Snowden as a hero.
What did Snowden do that has those in power screaming for his scalp and those — generally — who fear the loss of liberty, including millions of young people, grateful for his courage?
The NSA is America’s domestic spying apparatus. Its budget is secret. It will soon occupy the largest federal building on the planet. It often hires outside contractors to do much of its work. One of those contractors is Booz Allen Hamilton. Booz Allen’s co-chair is former Admiral John M. McConnell, who once headed the NSA. When Snowden began his work for Booz Allen, he took two oaths. The first oath was to keep secret the classified materials to which he would be exposed in his work as a spy; the second oath was to uphold the Constitution.
Shortly after Snowden began his work with the NSA, he came to the realization that he could not comply with both oaths. He realized that by keeping secret what he learned, he was keeping the American public in the dark about what its government is doing outside the Constitution in order to control the public.
What is it doing?
The government persuaded a federal judge with a perverse understanding of the values and history and language of the Constitution to sign a series of orders directing the largest telephone company in the U.S. and the largest Internet providers in the world to make available to the government’s prying eyes all sorts of information about nearly all of us, thus allowing the feds to monitor our use of land line and wireless phones, as well as our use of emails and texts. The numbers are staggering. Verizon has greater than 113,000,000 U.S. customers who generate or receive more than one billion phone calls every day. Americans text and email one another using the services of Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Facebook and others many billions of times every day.
—————-
Click below for the full article.
http://reason.com/blog/2013/06/20/andrew-napolitano-asks-wheres-fidelity-t
Video: Police Beat a Father To Death While He Begs For Help – Then Arrest Witnesses and Confiscate Video
International Business Times: Web Pioneer Tim Berners-Lee Warns of Government Bid to Control Internet ‘On the Sly’
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, has warned that the internet is facing a major threat from governments and companies who are seeking to “control it on the sly”.
Berners-Lee said the internet’s founding principles of openness and freedom of speech were at risk of being lost due to laws such as the US Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa), government surveillance and attempts by internet giants to profit from individuals’ private data.
“Unwarranted government surveillance is an intrusion on basic human rights that threatens the very foundations of a democratic society,” said Berners-Lee.
“I call on all web users to demand better legal protection and due process safeguards for the privacy of their online communications, including their right to be informed when someone requests or stores their data.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, has warned that the internet is facing a major threat from governments and companies who are seeking to “control it on the sly”.
Berners-Lee said the internet’s founding principles of openness and freedom of speech were at risk of being lost due to laws such as the US Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa), government surveillance and attempts by internet giants to profit from individuals’ private data.
“Unwarranted government surveillance is an intrusion on basic human rights that threatens the very foundations of a democratic society,” said Berners-Lee.
“I call on all web users to demand better legal protection and due process safeguards for the privacy of their online communications, including their right to be informed when someone requests or stores their data.
——
Click below for the full article.
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/476385/20130608/tim-berners-lee-internet-threat-privacy.htm