In recognition of the 20th anniversary of enactment of the Patriot Act, the Fourth Amendment Advisory Committee is hosting a panel discussion on the current state of surveillance in the US on Tuesday, 10/26 at 10:30 am. The panel will discuss how surveillance practices have changed over the past 20 years and what's happening now.

Panelists include:

• Mark Udall, former Colorado Senator and member of SSCI,

• Bob Goodlatte, former Virginia Representative and Chairman of HJC and Senior Policy Advisor at the Project for Privacy & Surveillance Accountability,

• Sandra Fulton, Director of Surveillance and Free Expression Policy at Free Press,

• Carolyn Iodice, Senior Counsel at Clause 40 Foundation, and

• Laura Moy, Director of the Communications & Technology Law Clinic, Associate Director of the Center on Privacy & Technology, and Associate Professor of Law at Georgetown Law

• Sean Vitka, moderator, Senior Policy Counsel at Demand Progress Education Fund

The Advisory Committee on Transparency and The Fourth Amendment Advisory Committee hosted a panel discussion on July 21, 2021, on the status of the free press in the U.S., focused on the surveillance of journalists and their sources.

Panelists include:

• Jennifer Henrichsen, Yale Law School Information Society Project Fellow

• Kathy Kiely, Lee Hills Chair in Free-Press Studies at Missouri University

• Michael De Dora, Washington Advocacy Manager for the Committee to Protect Journalists

• Melissa Wasser, Policy Counsel for The Project on Government Oversight

• Sean Vitka, Senior Policy Counsel for Demand Progress (Moderator)

The public recently learned that the Trump administration seized email and phone records from CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, sparking fears for the free press and journalists’ sources. Eric Lichtblau, a target himself, wrote thoughtfully on the issues at hand in The Intercept. The DOJ obtained his and three other NY Times reporters’ information in 2020 as part of an undisclosed leak investigation into their sources. The DOJ also sought their email records — a fight the Biden administration continued to wage. Far from a partisan issue, the Obama administration was frequently decried for conducting a “war on journalism.”

More information: Visit the Advisory Committee on Transparency at https://transparencycaucus.info/about and the Fourth Amendment Advisory Committee at https://fourthadvisory.org/about.

A briefing about the ongoing sunset of three Patriot Act authorities, roiling questions about domestic intelligence surveillance, and Congress's role in all of the above.

Panelists:

• Mark Udall, Former Colorado Senator and member of SSCI

• Bob Goodlatte, Former Virginia Representative and Chairman of HJC

• Billy Easley, Senior Policy Analyst for Technology and Innovation at Americans for Prosperity

• Liza Goitein, Co-Director of the Liberty & National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice

• Kate Ruane (moderator), Senior Legislative Counsel at Americans Civil Liberties Union

March 15, 2021, marked one year since three Patriot Act authorities expired — including Section 215, the authority that the NSA notoriously abused to collect Americans’ phone records in bulk. This panel will discuss what happened during that debate, the significance of Congress's voice on these issues, and what domestic surveillance issues are on the horizon.

More information: Visit the Advisory Committee on Transparency at https://transparencycaucus.info/about and the Fourth Amendment Advisory Committee at https://fourthadvisory.org/about.

On December 15th, 2019, Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act will once again come up for sunset. For years, the government used Section 215 to secretly collect all telephone records across the United States. The USA FREEDOM Act of 2015 restricted this practice, yet last year, under only one part of Section 215, the NSA acquired over 434 million phone records.

Our panel of experts discussed what the public knows and what policymakers need to know before Congress considers reauthorizing Section 215.

PANEL:

• Sandy Fulton, Government Relations Director at Free Press.

• Jumana Musa, Director of the Fourth Amendment Center at the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

• Marcy Wheeler, senior fellow at the Center for Cyber & Homeland Security at George Washington University and primary author of the blog emptywheel.net.

• Sean Vitka, counsel at Demand Progress.

WHEN: Monday, September 9, 2019, at 10 am.

WHERE: Rayburn 2237

On April 24th, 2019, the Fourth Amendment Advisory Committee participated in the Cybersecurity Fair for the 116th Congress. We brought all of the tremendous, publicly available resources we could fit on a folding table and shared as much as we could with House staff.

Read our quick checklist of security tips here.

Special thanks to the House of Representatives and a the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Surveillance Self-Defense Guide!

On December 15th, 2019, Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act will once again come up for sunset. For years, the FBI and NSA used Section 215 to secretly collect all telephone records across the United States. The USA FREEDOM Act restricted this practice, yet under only one sub-provision of Section 215, the NSA acquired over 534 million phone records in 2017.

To answer some of the many questions around Section 215, Alex Abdo will walk you through his team’s historic successes and setbacks challenging mass surveillance in court, Sandy Fulton will describe the real impacts of mass surveillance in America, and Marcy Wheeler will debut findings from a new report she has authored for Demand Progress Education Fund on the authority. In turn, this panel will explain what Congress and the public know about Section 215 and what they need to find out before it comes back up for reauthorization.

PANEL:

• Alex Abdo, senior staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute. While at the ACLU in 2015, Abdo argued an appeal that resulted in the Second Circuit invalidating the NSA’s bulk call-records program.

• Sandy Fulton, government relations director at Free Press Action Fund. Fulton is one of the primary advocates focused on the reform of mass surveillance in America.

• Moderator, Sean Vitka, director of the Fourth Amendment Advisory Committee.

• Marcy Wheeler, senior fellow at the Center for Cyber & Homeland Security at George Washington University. Wheeler is also the primary author and owner of the blog emptywheel and the primary author of two Demand Progress Education Fund reports chronicling mass surveillance under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

WHEN: Monday, February 25, 2019 at 12 pm

WHERE: Longworth 1310