The Dissent Newswire

This spring, as he did last year amid conspicuously little fanfare, President Obama stands ready to sign into law a bill reauthorizing portions of the PATRIOT Act. His reversal since the 2008 campaign is stunning, suggesting a deeper structural problem

It’s been nearly a decade since the PATRIOT Act became law in America. It’s time to put an end to the ongoing abuses under its draconian powers. Government surveillance has invaded the privacy of innocent Americans en masse. The FBI

On the anniversary of the first veto in US history—George Washington’s veto 219 years ago today—BORDC and a coalition of other civil liberties groups are calling on President Barack Obama to exercise his veto power on any bill reauthorizing the

A few weeks ago, I wrote A Decade in Crisis = The Opportunity of a Generation, a guest blog post for SAALT (South Asian Americans Leading Together) reflecting on the ten year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The past decade has

When the United States Constitution was written over two hundred years ago, the founders of our country did not have the technology we have today, but they did have the ideology of a right to privacy; they had the expectation

Last Friday, March 18, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University hosted a Symposium on Domestic Intelligence.  The symposium was fascinating, and featured three panels (on the last of which I spoke—video below) in addition to a series of

Ahead of Rep. Peter King’s divisive and Islamophobic hearings in the House Homeland Security Committee this week, I spoke at a press conference to denounce the dangerous, untrue, and un-American canard that Muslim Americans have been unwilling to cooperate with federal

Taking a cue from the recent Middle East movement, the people of Wisconsin’s capital now add themselves to the ever growing list of peaceful protesters taking a stand for their rights. Wisconsin is in the midst of heavy budget cuts

Last Tuesday’s surprise revolt in the House may have derailed fast-track reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act, but Congress is back at it again this week. Today, the House will vote again on whether to reauthorize unchecked and unaccountable government surveillance,

Ten years after passing the USA PATRIOT Act, Congress is again debating this enormous expansion of government power. With three provisions set to expire at the end of this month, and Tuesday’s revolt in the House against fast-track reauthorization, there has

This evening, under special rules requiring a 2/3 majority to pass a bill without allowing amendments, the House majority fell seven votes short of reauthorizing the PATRIOT Act. In what The Washington Post called “a vote that served as the first small

Thomas Nephew (left) speaks with a passerby about bag searches at a DC Metro station. Each month, BORDC recognizes an individual who has done outstanding work in support of civil liberties and the rule of law by honoring him with

This Tuesday, January 18, the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School hosted a panel discussion in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC, to release the new report by Emily Berman, Domestic Intelligence: New Powers, New Risks. 

Last week, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) hosted a one-day conference in Washington, DC to discuss the TSA bodyscanners and the various problems related to them. C-SPAN recorded the event, which featured Ralph Nader and BORDC board member Chip Pitts.