The December 31 deadline for reauthorizing three key clauses of the Patriot Act — and the possibility of introducing reforms in the process — is fast approaching. In response, Get FISA Right has put together an Open Letter to President Obama, and we're seeking your signature and support.
The open letter is available in a couple of places on the web. The primary copy that we're gathering signatures on is at the Bill of Rights Defense Committe site (http://bit.ly/...). If you are a member of Change.org, we also have a copy there using their new petition tool (http://bit.ly/...).
Come, sign them, tweet about them, spread the word!
While the legislative details are complex (see Kim Zetter’s Handy Chart Tracks Proposed Amendments to the Patriot Act for details) the basic outline of the debate so far is straightforward:
- pro-civil liberties Democrats are proposing significant new protections</li<li>Republicans and "independent" Joe Lieberman are proposing reauthorization without any new protections
- Blue Dogs are somewhere in between
- the Obama administration has spoken of its openness to reform, but during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings worked behind the scenes with Senator Sessions to significantly weaken the legislation.
That’s not the change many of us thought we were voting for, and so we at
Get FISA Right are gathering signatures on an open letter to President Obama. We're asking him to take a stand, to support significant reform, and to live up to his commitment to transparency by taking this stand publicly. What we ask in the letter specifically is that he:
"take a strong stand to support significant reform of key sections of the Patriot Act, incuding National Security Letters, Section 215, Lone Wolf, Sneak and peek, and material support. Legislatively, we ask for your public support of HR 3845 and 3846, and amendments adding similar protections to S 1692."
If civil liberties are important to you, we're asking you to join us, to sign our open letter and to spread the word. Sign the letter at the Bill of Rights Defense Committee site or at Change.org.
You can also help us spread the word via Twitter, Facebook, email and the rest of Web. Recommended tweets:
- RT @GetFISARight: ACTION: Join @BORDC and ask @BarackObama to support #patriotact reform! http://bit.ly/... (Please RT)
- RT @GetFISARight: ACTION: Ask @BarackObama to support #patriotact reform! http://bit.ly/... (Please RT)
And if you'd like to meet and talk with us about the Open letter, we're holding a Tweetchat on Patriot Act reform legislation featuring Julian Sanchez of the Cato Institute and Shahid Buttar of BORDC, today Tuesday, November 24 at 8 am PST/ 11 am EST at our Patriot Act Action Hub. Come and join us, we'd love to have you, but whatever you do, whatever you post,
PLEASE SIGN OUR OPEN LETTER OR PETITION asking the President to reconsider.
Thank you.