Protesters Plan National Anti-Spying Rallies for July 4th

It was only a matter of time before protesters staged rallies in opposition to the NSA's surveillance efforts. Restore the Fourth, a group that popped up in the wake of Edward Snowden's NSA leaks, is organizing protests in over 100 US cities on July 4th. The group is working with StopWatching.Us, another protest group whose anti-spying petition garnered over 500,000 signatures in just three weeks.

Restore the Fourth describes itself as a "a grassroots, non-partisan, non-violent movement" demanding "that the government of the United States of America adhere to its constitutionally dictated limits and respect the Fourth Amendment." A tall order, to be sure, but public sentiment seems to be on the side of the organizers.

The group argues that the Fourth Amendment "clearly protects all citizens’ assets, both digital and physical, against searches and seizures without warrant." But, this has been a matter of debate recently, with the honorable Richard Posner, a presiding judge on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, taking the position that "[n]either the word ‘privacy’ nor even the concept appears anywhere in the Constitution, and the current Supreme Court is highly sensitive, as it should be, to security needs."

New York magistrate judge Gary Brown also weighed in on the matter of privacy in digital communications. “Given the ubiquity and celebrity of geolocation technologies, an individual has no legitimate expectation of privacy in the prospective of a cellular telephone where that individual has failed to protect his privacy by taking the simple expedient of powering it off,” Brown wrote in an opinion favoring Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents who were seeking a warrant on a doctor who was suspected of doling out thousands of prescriptions for money.

Restore the Fourth made the following demands in a June 18 press release:

1. Enact reform this Congress to Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, the state secrets privilege, and the FISA Amendments Act to make clear that blanket surveillance of the Internet activity and phone records of any person residing in the U.S. is prohibited by law and that violations can be reviewed in adversarial proceedings before a public court;

2. Create a special committee to investigate, report, and reveal to the public the extent of this domestic spying. This committee should create specific recommendations for legal and regulatory reform to end unconstitutional surveillance;

3. Hold accountable those public officials who are found to be responsible for this unconstitutional surveillance.

Restore the Fourth's Dallas organizer, Michael Reed, said the movement coalesced, as things often do these days, on reddit.

"The idea for the restore the Fourth was always kind of around, but once the Snowden information hit it gave the movement a spark," said Reed. "It actually started out on reddit, and from there it snowballed as we started talking to each other and organizing."

Reed said the movement is decentralized and very local. Once the press materials were out there in the ether, it fell to the organization's local tentacles to grow the movement on a grassroots level. As expected, there will be protests in big cities like New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco, but also in areas like Lafayette, Arkansas, Moscow, Idaho, and Gainsville, Florida. Last week, Restore the Fourth projected protester attendance at 20,000, but now it looks like that number will only grow.

"Personally, I think that everyone is receptive to this effort," said Reed. "Everyone is interested in how far this activity can go before people start standing up. My grandparents are going to be out there protesting with me, so it definitely appeals to a wide range of people, and that is what makes us different than previous movements."

Asked what to expect at the various local rallies, Reed said that they will take the shape of traditional street protests: signs, chants, and the like. The idea being to keep the issue in the public consciousness, and motivate more people to take a stand against the government.

"In DC, there are going to be different speakers and organizations in attendance," added Reed. "The Bill of Rights Defense Council will be there, and Rand Paul has prepared a video. The ACLU is going to have someone coming out to speak as well."

Reed also noted that Restore the Fourth's National Director of Organization Anna Wilmesher spoke today with several members of Senator McCaskill's staff, who were receptive to the planned protests. Several other groups received positive responses from local representatives as well.

The Internet Defense League, a coalition of over 30,000 websites that formed after the SOPA internet blackout, has also thrown its support behind Restore the Fourth's July 4th rallies. According to IDL, they hope to amplify awareness of the protests.

"Thousands of tech startups, popular websites, and organizations will help fly the IDL’s famous 'Cat Signal,' including WordPress, Namecheap, reddit, 4chan, Mozilla, Fark, Tor, Cheezburger, Demand Progress, MoveOn, and EFF," an IDL press release reads. "True to the democratic spirit of the protests, each site and organization will participate in their own way, but most sites will display this message about NSA spying with the text of the 4th Amendment to the Constitution."

These website's users will see the message on July 4th, then be directed to CallForFreedom.org, where people can take action in a few different ways. They will be able to share a "variety of 4th Amendment themed images, find their local Restore the Fourth protest, call Congress to demand investigations into NSA programs, or donate to help fund television ads about NSA surveillance."

"The US government has been systematically spying on people all over the globe, violating their human rights,” commented IDL and Fight for the Future's Tiffiniy Cheng. "The NSA programs that have been exposed are blatantly unconstitutional, and have a detrimental effect on free speech and freedom of press worldwide. This is going to be our biggest protest since SOPA, and it should be no surprise. You can’t disregard people’s privacy, invade their personal lives on a daily basis, and not expect them to fight back."

IDL's Evan Greer believes that people are outraged and ready to take action. He also emphasizes that this issue transcends traditional American politics.

"Regardless of what else they believe, most people don't want the government to be constantly watching their every move online," Greer said, noting that right wing libertarian groups are standing alongside "Florida Democrat Rep. Alan Grayson, tech media celebrity Tim O'Reilly, OccupyWallStreet NYC, and thousands of other people whose beliefs vary greatly, but who can all agree that the NSA needs to read the 4th Amendment." The IDL is also promoting a "social media Thunderclap" that will exploit this non-partisan energy, reaching more than 4.4 million people.

Mozilla, always a mainstay behind digital rights issues, is another key supporter. The company's VP of legal affairs, Harvey Anderson, spoke with reporters on a conference call today. "More than 500,000 people have joined in less than three weeks," Anderson said. "I think that's pretty amazing and shows the concern people have. This kind of [surveillance] activity undermines the trust in what an open Internet can and should be."

Restore the Fourth is also attempting to shift the debate away from Edward Snowden. His status as hero or villain, and the suspense of his asylum applications, is great diversion, but Restore the Fourth believes that it is counter-productive to the debate over government surveillance of Americans (to say nothing of the NSA's foreign surveillance efforts).

"We must now shift the bulk of our attention away from Edward Snowden," wrote Robert Heldreth in the Restore the Fourth blog several days ago. "The most pressing and urgent question is this: How will we respond now that we know that the government is violating the constitution on this scale? And what actions must we take to ensure that our leaders not only hear our voices, but listen?"

Reed echoed Heldreth's sentiment. "The strategy is to focus on [surveillance] ourselves in our promotional work, to make the case that he isn't the real story here, and to present to the American people our case that the NSA has indeed been blatantly violating the constitution—the constitution being something we know all Americans feel strong about," Reed said. "As our protest continues to rapidly increase its exposure and the media cycle moves away from Snowden, we will be able to replace the Snowden narrative with this much more important one."