New Progress, New Logo, New Events
Join us in D.C. October 26th in Washington, DC
We have some great news and some big announcements. The fight against unconstitutional surveillance is gaining more traction with the public, the media, and Washington. Americans are taking advantage of the summer recess to demand their representatives vote to protect the Fourth Amendment, Restore the Fourth has a new logo, and our next national event is just two months away.
If you’ve been following the news you know that it’s not all great. Some surveillance-protected web services have had to shut down in the face of government intrusion. We’re regularly learning more and more about the extent of unconstitutional surveillance, including that the NSA’s network has “the capacity to reach around 75 percent of all U.S. Internet communications.” We learned from an internal NSA audit that the agency breaks “privacy rules” or “oversteps its legal authority” literally thousands of times per year. Meanwhile, British authorities detained the partner of Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald for nine hours at Heathrow airport in an apparent play to intimidate Greenwald from continuing his work revealing the NSA’s transgressions.
The good news is that our message is being heard, that the public isn’t letting all of this go. A late July poll showed the number of Americans that agree “anti-terror policies have gone too far in restricting civil liberties” has nearly doubled since 2010, and Restore the Fourth’s second round of protests on August 4th garnered further national and international media attention. On August 9th, President Obama announced “proposals to reform NSA surveillance.” Although that warrants a huge amount of skepticism, it shows Washington knows the movement against unconstitutional surveillance is too much to just ignore.
While the administration struggles to spin the story in its favor, the President’s approval rating among young voters has taken a 14-point plummet since the NSA scandal was revealed in June. The Amash Amendment came just short of passing in the House of Representatives a month ago, and one congressman has observed that the news since then “would have changed the outcome” of the vote. Meanwhile, new legislation to curb unconstitutional surveillance is already in the works.
Summer Recess: It’s Not Too Late
Congress will be back in session on September 9th, giving us two more weeks to use town halls and in-district meetings to take advantage of the traction we’ve gained. If you haven’t already, please make an effort to get a face-to-face meeting with your representative to tell him or her you demand legislation ending unconstitutional surveillance. You only need about 5 people to make your presence memorable, and scheduling a meeting is often easier than you expect. Here are some resources that can help you:
accountablecongress.com Event-Finding Tool
BORDC Guide “How to promote civil liberties during the congressional recess” (pdf)
defundthensa.com
Free Press Event-Finding/Planning Tool
Free Press In-District Meeting FAQ
List of Known Town Hall Meetings Aug. 26 Onwards (Google Drive)
Join Us in Washington October 26th
On October 26th, the anniversary of the PATRIOT Act, Restore the Fourth will rally against unconstitutional surveillance with a march on Washington. We hope people everywhere will make the trip and make their voices heard. We also call on all pro-Fourth Amendment organizations to join us in D.C., to help make sure the “next Amash Amendment” passes. Those already planning to include Demand Progress, Fight for the Future, Fress Press, and the Bill of Rights Defense Committee. We’ll be releasing a lot more details as they’re finalized, but make plans to join Restore the Fourth and our allies for this national event.
New Logo
Restore the Fourth needed a new logo and with your help, we found one. Taking community proposals and input, we went with this modified American flag design offered by redditor /u/-MY-.
The three redacted stripes represent the secrecy and lack of accountability with which our government has employed these programs. The four stripes, and the fourth being highlighted, refers to the Fourth Amendment. And the use of the American flag represents the Bill of Rights that’s supposed to protect us and that we’re fighting to uphold.
Volunteer
We’re still recruiting volunteers, and especially need those with skills in web development and on-the-ground activism. If you’d like to help, check out our new form onrestorethefourth.net/volunteer and let us know what areas you’re interested in helping. If you signed up on the old form and haven’t heard back from us yet, you’re free to fill out this one too, but don’t worry, we’re still planning to contact those we’ve missed on the earlier form.
We didn’t lose our Fourth Amendment rights overnight, and we won’t get them back overnight. But we still have time to continue fighting and together, we can regain our privacy and restore those rights.
See you in Washington!
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Mailing address : organizing@restorethefourth.