Letter to the California Assembly Public Safety Committee in support of Senate Bill 1021, which would allow individuals convicted of certain first-time misdemeanor DUI offenses to be granted diversion.

Written Testimony of Monica L. Reid, Senior Director of Advocacy, on behalf of NACDL to the Delaware House Health and Human Development Committee in Support of HB 371, which would legalize the use and possession of small amounts of cannabis for adults 21 and older. Submitted on May 3, 2022.

Letter to the Virginia House Appropriations Committee in support of SB 730, legislation to increase the daily compensation rate for jurors in Virginia from $30 to $50. 

We write to request further congressional oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (“FBI”) operations pursuant to the 2008 Attorney General’s Guidelines, which were implemented over congressional objections and threaten the constitutional rights of all Americans. In the wake of The Washington Post series exposing the secrecy and unaccountability of our nation’s intelligence establishment, the Senate Judiciary Committee has a responsibility to seek transparency into FBI operations and restore the Bureau’s accountability.

We write to urge that the Senate Judiciary Committee promptly hold confirmation hearings on President Obama’s nominees to the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB). As you know, as of December of last year, President Obama has nominated a full bipartisan slate of five nominees to serve on the Board … While many of our organizations do not take positions endorsing or opposing any specific candidates, we all agree it is critical that this Committee and the full Senate act quickly to move forward with the confirmation process and allow the PCLOB to begin its important work.

We the undersigned organizations urge you to vote ‘no’ on H.R. 3523, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011 (CISPA). We are gravely concerned that this bill will allow companies that hold very sensitive and personal information to liberally share it with the government, which could then use the information without meaningful oversight for purposes unrelated to cybersecurity. We understand this bill is scheduled to be considered on the House floor during “Cybersecurity Week,” the week of April 23^rd.

We the undersigned organizations write in opposition to amendments that would strip privacy protections from Title VII, the information sharing title of S. 3414, the Cybersecurity Act of 2012. …we are in agreement that the current version of Title VII should be considered the privacy floor, and not the ceiling. To that end, we strongly oppose amendments that have been, or are expected to be offered that would substitute the information sharing provisions of SECURE IT or otherwise weaken privacy safeguards.

We, the undersigned companies and organizations, are writing to express our support for Chairman Leahy’s and Sen. Lee’s ECPA Amendments Act, S. 607, which the Committee will consider shortly. The bill would update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) to provide stronger protection to sensitive personal and proprietary communications stored in “the cloud.” We urge all Members of the Committee to support the bill.

We write to urge you to ensure that any new cybersecurity information sharing bill considered in the Senate in 2013 at least maintains the privacy protections from Title VII, the information sharing title of S. 3414, the Cybersecurity Act of 2012. We agree that the protections in Title VII of S. 3414 last year should be considered the privacy floor, and not the ceiling for any cybersecurity legislation. To that end, we would strongly oppose any effort to bring to the Senate floor the information sharing provisions of last year’s SECURE IT bill, or otherwise weaken privacy safeguards.

We write to express our concerns about a proposal that would grant federal regulatory agencies authority to require web-based email service providers, cloud service providers and other Internet companies to disclose the contents of sensitive and proprietary communications or documents that they store on behalf of their customers.

NACDL respectfully submits the following comments to the Oklahoma House of Representatives in response to the Interim Study to address the privacy questions raised by the operation of unmanned aircraft systems, also known as drones, in Oklahoma. ... NACDL applauds the House of Representatives for taking the first step in studying the privacy implications raised by the use of domestic surveillance drones, and we look forward to ongoing conversations about the privacy and civil liberties impact of this new technology as you move forward with the study.

We the undersigned support ending the bulk collection of all types of data under all legal authorities, while preserving the requirement of prior court approval for surveillance under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. We recognize the substantial step in this direction the House Judiciary Committee and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence took in unanimously passing the USA FREEDOM Act (H.R. 3361). The bill includes several components critical to meaningful reform... We respectfully urge you to oppose efforts to weaken these or other provisions in this historic bill.

We represent a wide range of privacy and human rights advocates, technology companies, and trade associations that hold an equally wide range of positions on surveillance reform. Many of us have differing views on exactly what reforms must be included in any bill reauthorizing USA PATRIOT Act Section 215, which currently serves as the legal basis for the NSA’s bulk collection of telephone metadata and is set to expire on June 1, 2015. Our broad, diverse, and bipartisan coalition believes that the status quo is untenable and that it is urgent that Congress move forward with reform.

To Director of National Intelligence Coats: The undersigned organizations write to express our dismay at your decision to abandon the effort to estimate the number of Americans whose communications are incidentally collected pursuant to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. We ask that you reconsider.

To Chair Goodlatte and Ranking Member Conyers: ... If Director Coats remains steadfast in his efforts to evade oversight by the public and this Committee, we urge you to use all powers at your disposal to obtain this number.

... As you consider the reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), we strongly urge reforms to ensure this surveillance tool is not improperly co-opted for purely domestic law enforcement purposes, and oppose any reauthorization that does not include substantial reforms. This is critical given America’s history of selective targeting, persecution, and abuse directed at persons of color, religious minorities, and dissidents when the government has obtained surveillance powers absent adequate checks and oversight.