<div dir="auto"><div data-smartmail="gmail_signature" dir="auto"><br></div><div class="gmail_quote" dir="auto">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: "Melinda St. Louis" <<a href="mailto:mstlouis@citizen.org">mstlouis@citizen.org</a>><br>Date: Aug 18, 2017 4:58 PM<br>Subject: Could you send this to CTC list? FW: Sign-on: defending the right to dissent<br>To: "<a href="mailto:arthur@citizenstrade.org">arthur@citizenstrade.org</a>" <<a href="mailto:arthur@citizenstrade.org">arthur@citizenstrade.org</a>><br><br><br type="attribution"><blockquote class="quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""> Melinda St. Louis
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<b>Sent:</b> Friday, August 18, 2017 4:52 PM<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Sign-on: defending the right to dissent<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d">This is not expressly trade-related, but for U.S. organizations, please read this important call for sign-ons to protect our right to dissent.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""> Robert Weissman
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<b>Sent:</b> Thursday, August 17, 2017 1:58 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> Robert Weissman<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Sign-on: defending the right to dissent<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Friends,<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/346544-dreamhost-claims-doj-requesting-info-on-visitors-to-anti-trump-website" target="_blank">The Department of Justice is seeking</a> identifying information for every person – estimated to be 1.3 million
people in total – who visited a website dedicated to organizing protests at Trump’s inauguration. DOJ has served a warrant on a web hosting company, DreamHost, which is challenging the validity of the warrant.<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This shockingly overbroad request constitutes an egregious violation of First Amendment and privacy rights, and if granted will have a major chilling effect on dissent and protest.<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It is also almost certainly foreshadows worse civil liberties violations to come, if DOJ can get away with what it’s trying here.<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It’s vital that civil society organizations defend the space on which we rely. This is not one to be left only for groups focused on civil liberties on Internet rights.<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In light of which, please consider signing on to the attached letter (also pasted below) to Jeff Sessions, asking the DOJ to rescind its records request, and circulating this note widely to your networks.
<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Please send organizational signs-ons by Weds, Aug 23 to Jesse Franzblau at
<a href="mailto:jfranzblau@openthegovernment.org" target="_blank">jfranzblau@openthegovernment.<wbr>org</a><u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Best,<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Rob<u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d">Robert Weissman<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d">President, Public Citizen<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d">Email: <a href="mailto:rweissman@citizen.org" target="_blank">
rweissman@citizen.org</a><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d">Tel: <a href="tel:(202)%20588-1000" value="+12025881000" target="_blank">202-588-1000</a><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d">Apologies for cross-posts, but we’re really aiming to go broad with this one.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d">-----------------------<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">August 2017<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Honorable Jeff Sessions<br>
Attorney General<br>
Department of Justice<br>
Washington, DC 20530<u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Re: Justice Department request for data associated with Inauguration Day protests <u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">The undersigned organizations write to express alarm over the Justice Department’s unconstitutional and extremely overly broad request for information on all visitors to a website
that had been used to organize protests on Inauguration Day. The Justice Department’s attempt to access information on any and all individual use of a website that expresses political views about the current administration endangers First Amendment protections,
violates the Fourth Amendment, and creates the appearance that the Justice Department lacks independence from the political will of the White House.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">The Justice Department recently filed a motion with the D.C. Superior Court to compel the website provider DreamHost to comply with a search warrant seeking practically all company
records and information associated the website</span><a href="http://www.disruptj20.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color:black">
</span><span style="color:#1155cc">www.disruptj20.org</span></a><span style="color:black">.</span><a href="#m_6225015721202266747__ftn1" name="m_6225015721202266747__ftnref1" title=""><span class="m_6225015721202266747MsoFootnoteReference">[1]</span></a>
<span style="color:black">According to the response filed by DreamHost, complying with the request from the Justice Department would amount to handing over roughly 1.3 million visitor IP addresses to the government, in addition to contact information, email
content and photos of thousands of visitors to the website. The search warrant would force DreamHost to disclose the content of all email inquiries and comments submitted from numerous private email accounts and prompted by the website.</span><a href="#m_6225015721202266747__ftn2" name="m_6225015721202266747__ftnref2" title=""><span class="m_6225015721202266747MsoFootnoteReference">[2]</span></a><span style="color:black">
The information yielded by this sweeping request would allow the government to identify individuals engaged in constitutionally protected speech and dissent. </span><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">The website in question was used as a platform for providing and exchanging information about Inauguration Day protests. The Justice Department has asserted that it was also used
in the “development, planning, advertisement, and organization of a violent riot” that took place during the Inauguration. But the warrant sought and obtained by the Department of Justice is not limited to the approximately 200 individuals who were arrested
in connection with alleged violence. Instead, it seeks the disclosure of information about each of the 1.3 million individuals who visited the website, all of which is then subject to being searched by the government.</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">The Justice Department’s request raises deeply troubling First Amendment issues. Compliance with the warrant would effectively disclose to the government a list of people who
expressed opposition to the incoming administration. Regardless of whether the administration takes any action against those individuals, the provision of such a list would create a significant chilling effect on future protests. Many people who wish to peacefully
express their dissent will refrain from doing so if they know that the violent actions of any single protester could result in their own Internet activity being sought and obtained by the Justice Department.</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">The warrant also fails to comport with the Fourth Amendment. A warrant must identify with particularity both the places to be searched and the items to be seized. A search of
data pertaining to all 1.3 million individuals who visited the website is the opposite of “particularized”: it is the very “general warrant” that the Fourth Amendment’s authors intended to prohibit. As for the information to be seized, the warrant does not
identify specific targets, include any time limitation, or provide any assurance that the government will return or destroy the large portion of the information irrelevant to the government’s criminal cases. This sweeping overbreadth raises special Constitutional
concerns where, as here, core First Amendment associational rights are at stake, demanding heightened scrutiny.
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">It is no answer that a judge has signed off on the Justice Department’s request. The difficulties of applying decades-old constitutional case law to the digital era are notorious,
and it is widely acknowledged that the law has failed to keep up with technology. The Justice Department should not be exploiting this Achilles heel of the justice system to see how far it can trim back the protections of the First and Fourth Amendments.</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">The Justice Department request for information in this case conflicts with core American values and should be rescinded immediately. Americans have a right to seek information
without fear of surveillance; they have a right to privacy; they have a right to dissent; and they have a right to petition their government without fear of persecution. Even in its prosecutorial role – especially in its prosecutorial role – the Justice Department
should seek to uphold, not undermine, these constitutional protections. They are central to what truly makes America great.</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Thank you for your attention to this matter. If you have any questions, please contact Lisa Rosenberg, Executive Director of OpenTheGovernment, at
<a href="mailto:lrosenberg@openthegovernment.org" target="_blank"><span style="background:white">lrosenberg@openthegovernment.<wbr>org</span></a>, or <a href="tel:(202)%20332-6736" value="+12023326736" target="_blank">202.332.6736</a>.
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<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Sincerely,<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Undersigned organizations
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<p class="m_6225015721202266747MsoFootnoteText"><a href="#m_6225015721202266747__ftnref1" name="m_6225015721202266747__ftn1" title=""><span class="m_6225015721202266747MsoFootnoteReference">[1]</span></a> United State’s Motion for DreamHost to Show Cause:
<a href="https://www.dreamhost.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/DH-DOJMotiontoShowCause.pdf" target="_blank">
https://www.dreamhost.com/<wbr>blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/<wbr>08/DH-DOJMotiontoShowCause.pdf</a><span style="color:#1f497d">
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<p class="m_6225015721202266747MsoFootnoteText"><a href="#m_6225015721202266747__ftnref2" name="m_6225015721202266747__ftn2" title=""><span class="m_6225015721202266747MsoFootnoteReference">[2]</span></a> DreamHost’s response in opposition to United States’ Motion for DreamHost to Show Cause:
<a href="https://www.dreamhost.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/DH-Opposition-Motion.pdf" target="_blank">
https://www.dreamhost.com/<wbr>blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/<wbr>08/DH-Opposition-Motion.pdf</a>
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