The unprecedented abuse of government power to keep dibs on who Americans are calling and what we’re doing online is getting some much needed resistance today. In over 100 cities, demonstrations agains domestic surveilance have been organized by Restore The Fourth, a group that bills itself as “a non-partisan, unaffiliated group of concerned citizens who seek to strengthen the Fourth Amendment with respect to digital surveillance by the U.S. government.” The NSA’s programs, which clearly violate “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures,” have come under increased scrutiny since they were exposed in June.
I’ll be live Tweeting the New York event from @bpkelly89 and updating later today. Feel free to send along your questions and comments.
In the meantime, you can brush up on the issue with reporting from The Guardian and The Washington Post, as well as interesting pieces with different perspectives on the scope and importance of the NSA’s programs at The Weekly Standard and “The Audacity of Despair,” David Simon’s blog.