This is an open letter submitted to my Senators and Congressman on November 18, 2013.
-----
I am writing to ask you to end government spying on ordinary American citizens, and to enact a Constitutional Amendment for Privacy. The guarantee of privacy is a basic right of a free people.
The Privacy Amendment should prohibit indiscriminate data collection by both business and government. My personal information is my property; it may not be taken without my explicit permission. Further, commercial enterprises must not require my personal information as a condition of providing service to me beyond what is necessary for the delivery of that service.
Recent revelations from Edward Snowden have revealed the extent of government spying to the American people. It seems the NSA has gathered all of my e-mails and keeps record of all of my reading on the Internet. The NSA has worked very hard to keep the extent of their incursions a secret.
There are two reasons for secrecy in government. The first reason is to protect Americans from our enemies. The second reason is to hide what the government is doing from the people.
It is clear to me that we are in the second situation. The NSA brazenly lied to Congress about the extent of its proposed programs when seeking budgetary authority for their data center in Utah. They seek to avoid public knowledge of their actions, and to avoid Congressional oversight. Such secrecy and deception does little to convey confidence in their integrity.
Domestic spying is a defining characteristic of despotic regimes. At this time, anyone who says, “I have nothing to hide” is missing the point. This amount of secret power will be abused. We have many examples of the abuse of power in our own history. These examples pale in comparison to the horrors which occurred in other countries through the past century. America is not immune to such abuse; our only defenses are the Constitution, our courts and Congress.
The NSA should not collect nor read my e-mail. They should not collect the history of my Internet searches nor accumulate metadata about my telephone calls. While these programs are in effect, I cannot write candidly, for fear some keyword or combination of words will somehow trigger a computerized alarm about my communications. Freedom of speech doesn’t exist in a constant condition of surveillance. I recommend a recent column by Leonard Pitts, in which he worries about his Google searches while researching a novel about terrorism.
By what logic do we have a secret court, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, approving spying programs on American citizens? What place does a secret court hold in our democracy? How has this court become a 34-year institution in our government? The court is clearly a rubber-stamp for the NSA, having denied only 11 of 33,942 requests for domestic surveillance warrants from 1979 to 2012. Will the court define secret offenses, and approve secret penalties and restrictions on citizens deemed to be security risks? If you answer no, how do you know?
Domestic spying is inconsistent with what it means to be a free people. The spying programs conducted by the NSA are expressly forbidden by the Fourth Amendment, but somehow continue. It is up to you; it is up to Congress to put a stop to it and protect American freedom.
-----
I am writing to ask you to end government spying on ordinary American citizens, and to enact a Constitutional Amendment for Privacy. The guarantee of privacy is a basic right of a free people.
The Privacy Amendment should prohibit indiscriminate data collection by both business and government. My personal information is my property; it may not be taken without my explicit permission. Further, commercial enterprises must not require my personal information as a condition of providing service to me beyond what is necessary for the delivery of that service.
Recent revelations from Edward Snowden have revealed the extent of government spying to the American people. It seems the NSA has gathered all of my e-mails and keeps record of all of my reading on the Internet. The NSA has worked very hard to keep the extent of their incursions a secret.
There are two reasons for secrecy in government. The first reason is to protect Americans from our enemies. The second reason is to hide what the government is doing from the people.
It is clear to me that we are in the second situation. The NSA brazenly lied to Congress about the extent of its proposed programs when seeking budgetary authority for their data center in Utah. They seek to avoid public knowledge of their actions, and to avoid Congressional oversight. Such secrecy and deception does little to convey confidence in their integrity.
Domestic spying is a defining characteristic of despotic regimes. At this time, anyone who says, “I have nothing to hide” is missing the point. This amount of secret power will be abused. We have many examples of the abuse of power in our own history. These examples pale in comparison to the horrors which occurred in other countries through the past century. America is not immune to such abuse; our only defenses are the Constitution, our courts and Congress.
The NSA should not collect nor read my e-mail. They should not collect the history of my Internet searches nor accumulate metadata about my telephone calls. While these programs are in effect, I cannot write candidly, for fear some keyword or combination of words will somehow trigger a computerized alarm about my communications. Freedom of speech doesn’t exist in a constant condition of surveillance. I recommend a recent column by Leonard Pitts, in which he worries about his Google searches while researching a novel about terrorism.
By what logic do we have a secret court, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, approving spying programs on American citizens? What place does a secret court hold in our democracy? How has this court become a 34-year institution in our government? The court is clearly a rubber-stamp for the NSA, having denied only 11 of 33,942 requests for domestic surveillance warrants from 1979 to 2012. Will the court define secret offenses, and approve secret penalties and restrictions on citizens deemed to be security risks? If you answer no, how do you know?
Domestic spying is inconsistent with what it means to be a free people. The spying programs conducted by the NSA are expressly forbidden by the Fourth Amendment, but somehow continue. It is up to you; it is up to Congress to put a stop to it and protect American freedom.
