The Senate Judiciary Committee markup of the Leahy PATRIOT Act reauthorization bill continues Thursday, October 8, with votes scheduled on amendments from Russ Feingold to strengthen protections against abuse of National Security Letters and repeal retroactive telecom immunity. These votes will have a major impact on the Senate legislation, so this is a key battle to win.
Between now and then, we need to pressure Democrats on the SJC to support Russ Feingold, Dick Durbin, and the other Senators who have sponsored the JUSTICE Act, a comprehensive approach to reforming the PATRIOT Act.
A broad coalition including EFF, the ACLU, Bill of Rights Defense Committee, the American Library association and many other organizations support the JUSTICE Act
Our ask is straightforward: "Support the JUSTICE Act": vote for the amendments on Thursday, and sign on as co-sponsors to the JUSTICE Act.he Leahy PATRIOT Act reauthorization bill is the best chance yet for significant reform.
For more information, see
- Tip of the Hat, Wag of the Finger: PATRIOT Edition -- Kevin Bankton's latest update from EFF.
- PATRIOT Reauthorization Begins. Badly. -- ACLU
- Can Skittles help fix the PATRIOT Act and FISA?, Jon Pincus, The Seminal
- Lawmakers Cave to FBI in Patriot Act Debate, David Kravetz, Wired's Threat Level
- Real Reform for the PATRIOT Act, Julian Sanchez, The American Prospect (also posted on Cato@Liberty)
- Our Best Chance Yet to Fix the PATRIOT Act and FISA, Jon Pincus' post on Pam's House Blend
- Comparisons of the JUSTICE Act and Leahy's bill from Center for Democracy and Technology, Julian Sanchez on Cato@Liberty, and Marcy Wheeler on Emptywheel
- Action Alerts from the American Library Association, DownSizeDC, and Democrats.com
- Reform the Patriot Act, with a wealth of information
- Letter to the Senate Judiciary committee from a coalition of 23 organizations
- The coalition's letter in Support of the JUSTICE Act and statements of support from EFF and the ACLU
- Senator Feingold's JUSTICE Act announcement
Contact information for the Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats we will be showing the way on this issue:
About Get FISA Right The "Senator Obama, Please Get FISA Right" MyBo group started organically before a group of volunteers helped it go viral in 2008. Bloggers were undoubtedly instrumental in that effort through their writing----and we need your help again today!
As the MyBo group gained a large following, we used a wiki/collaborative process to create an
open letter to Obama. A vast amount of blog coverage begot MSM
coverage, and in unprecedented fashion Obama
responded to the group both on MyBo and on the Huffington Post. We lost the legislative battle--and the content of Obama's response was not what we were hoping for--but we were successful at helping change the national debate, attaining Obama's attention, and successfully opening up a direct line of communication with him.
Now, with PATRIOT Act and FISA reform coming up, many of us are back and ready to expand upon last summers' successes. Please join us
Organizing for America,
Facebook,
MySpace,
Twitter, and
Wetpaint.