Samantha Peetros, communications specialist, develops online and print communication and outreach materials, manages the agency's websites and social networking efforts, and handles media outreach and inquiries. She also oversees the agency's intern and volunteer program and serves as editor of the newsletter. Samantha comes to BORDC with over nine years of political experience, having acted as a liaison to state political organizations, field organizer, and new media specialist. She most recently worked as the events and communications coordinator for the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Western Massachusetts, and for the Womanshelter/Companeras as an advocate for victims of domestic violence in Springfield courts. After earning her bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 2009, she earned a certificate in advanced paralegal studies from Bay Path College. Samantha is currently a candidate for juris doctor at Western New England University School of Law, where she is focusing on constitutional law, gender and sexuality studies, and public policy.
May 23, 2013 at 3:48 pm
May 2013, Vol. 12 No. 05
View this newsletter as a webpage: http://www.bordc.org/newsletter/2012/05/
Department of Justice seizes phone records of journalists
BORDC News
Grassroots News
- May 2013 Patriot Award: Jayel Aheram
- Grassroots Updates
- Alameda County, CA: County passes resolution against Secure Communities policy
- Los Angeles, CA: Stop LAPD Spying continues to address pervasive surveillance
- Charlotte, NC: Activists challenge statewide discriminatory policing and sentencing
- California: AB 351 advances to challenge indefinite detention
- Chicago, IL, mobilizes across several events
- Dallas, TX, hosts events to greet Bush Presidential Center, challenges protest restriction
- Albany, NY, responds to abusive paramilitary training exercise
- Connecticut legislature tackles several civil liberties issues
Law and Policy
New Resources and Opportunities
May 10, 2013 at 5:00 pm
5/10, Kevin Collier, Salon, Congress wants to let you unlock your cellphone
5/10, A.M. Gittlitz, TruthOut, Double Jeopardy: New York Activist Subpoenaed for Secret Grand Jury – Again
5/10, Max Fisher, Washington Post, Photos from Guantanamo’s force-feeding facilities
5/10, Natasha Lennard, Salon, Hidden in immigration reform, vast biometrics plan
5/10, Jonathan Weisman, New York Times, I.R.S. Apologizes to Conservative Groups Over Application Audits
5/9, Mark M. Jaycox, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Update to Email Privacy Law Must Go Further
May 9, 2013 at 5:00 pm
5/9, Peter Van Buren, Salon, The government whistleblower who wouldn’t be silenced
5/9, Brian Bennett and Richard A. Serrano, Los Angeles Times, Intelligence report identified vulnerability before Boston bombing
5/9, Alicia A. Caldwell and Eileen Sullivan, Salon, Boston police commissioner: We need more cameras
5/9, Hazel Dukes, Amsterdam News (NY), NAACP condemns Quinn’s support of stop-and-frisk
5/9, Barbara Ross, Daily News (NY), Judge backs NYPD’s refusal to detail its surveillance of Muslim community under Freedom of Information Law
5/9, VIDEO, Huffington Post, FBI Planning To Revise Wiretapping Laws
May 8, 2013 at 5:00 pm
5/8, Laurie Jo Reynolds and Stephen F. Eisenman , Creative Time Reports, TruthOut, Tamms Is Torture: The Campaign to Close an Illinois Supermax Prison
5/8, Scott Thistle, Bangor (ME) Daily News, Bill to allow police to use drones without search warrant heads to Maine Senate
5/7, Erin Durkin, Daily News (NY), On Muslim Surveillance, Bloomberg Questions Mayoral Candidates’ Intelligence
5/7, Charlie Savage, New York Times, U.S. Weighs Wide Overhaul of Wiretap Laws
5/7, Staff, Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, After Boston, Little Change in Views of Islam and Violence
5/6, John Knefel, Rolling Stone Magazine, Everything You’ve Been Told About Radicalization Is Wrong
May 7, 2013 at 5:00 pm
Current News
5/7, Adrian Chen, Gawker, Newly Declassified Memo Shows CIA Shaped Zero Dark Thirty’s Narrative
5/7, Paul Rosenzweig, Lawfare, CISPA – An Assessment
5/7, Greg Miller, Washington Post, CIA selects new head of clandestine service, passing over officer tied to interrogation program
5/6, Eyder Peralta, NPR, Prisoner Points To Quran Search For Gitmo Hunger Strike
5/6, CBS Staff, CBS (LA), Civil Rights Groups Sue LAPD, LA County Sheriff’s Department Over Automatic License Plate Readers
April 18, 2013 at 7:19 pm
April 2013, Vol. 12 No. 04
View this newsletter as a webpage: http://www.bordc.org/newsletter/2013/04
In this issue:
BORDC releases model legislation to address domestic surveillance drones
BORDC News
Highlights from the past month include:
Grassroots News
- April 2013 Patriot Award: Joe Scarry
- ICE raid detains 27 on day of immigration march in Connecticut
- Las Vegas, NV, rejects indefinite detention under NDAA
- Grassroots Updates
- New York, NY: Community calls for broad profiling ban, protections against unlawful searches, and more
- Charlotte, NC: Area residents call on City Council for increased transparency, examination into Review Board’s power
- Asheville, NC: April 29 meeting will reflect on progress of grassroots organizing in Asheville
- Chicago, IL: Community events shine light on civil liberties actions across the city
- Los Angeles, CA: StopLAPD Spying coalition released “People’s Audit of the Los Angeles Police”
- California: Assembly Public Safety Committee approves TRUST Act
Law and Policy
New Resources and Opportunities
March 21, 2013 at 5:00 pm
- 3/21, Steve Inskeep and Tom Gjelten, NPR, Pentagon May Take Over CIA’s Drone Program
- 3/20, Matt Sledge, Huffington Post, CIA’s Gus Hunt On Big Data: We ‘Try To Collect Everything And Hang On To It Forever’
- 3/20, Matthew L. Wald, New York Times, Current Laws May Offer Little Shield Against Drones, Senators Are Told
- 3/20, Jennifer Peltz, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg says he’d veto proposal for NYPD monitor
- 3/20, Charlie Savage, New York Times, Number of Hunger Strikers Surges at Guantánamo
- 3/20, Gerry Smith, Huffington Post, Web Giants Fight CISPA, Push Back Against Resurrection Of Cybersecurity Bill
- 3/20, Andrea Peterson, ThinkProgress, The Government Can (Still) Read Most Of Your Emails Without A Warrant
- 3/20, Kevin Gosztola, Fire Dog Lake, The Push to End Warrantless Intrusions on Digital Communications
March 21, 2013 at 9:27 am
March 2013, Vol. 12 No. 03
View this newsletter as a webpage: http://www.bordc.org/newsletter/2013/03/
March 2013, Vol. 12 No. 03
View this newsletter as a webpage: http://www.bordc.org/newsletter/2013/03/
On March 6, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) forced a long overdue conversation in Washington about checks and balances on executive power by leading a bipartisan filibuster of John Brennan’s nomination to lead the CIA.
In the last month, BORDC and coalitions we support across the nation have appeared in various press outlets to promote concerns about constitutional rights and the powers of police and intelligence agencies that abuse them.
Have you read BORDC’s blog lately? The People’s Blog for the Constitution has attracted a growing audience that has tripled over the past year. Featuring news & analysis beyond the headlines on a daily basis, it offers a great way to stay up-to-date and informed.
Highlights from the past month include:
On Tuesday, March 5, BORDC’s Shahid Buttar spoke at the University of Texas School of Law in Austin. Hosted by the American Constitution Society, his talk, which was videotaped and is available online, addressed “Power and Accountability in the Post-9/11 era: torture, targeted killing, and domestic drone surveillance.”
On Sunday, May 5, BORDC will host a reception in San Francisco celebrating the organization’s first decade of grassroots organizing to restore civil liberties, and several recent policy victories across the San Francisco Bay Area.
Every month, BORDC honors an individual who has made an outstanding contribution in his or her community to the movement to restore civil liberties and the rule of law. This month, the Patriot Award goes to Mary Madden for her extraordinary and committed activism and organizing.
To view campaigns supported by BORDC at a glance, visit our interactive campaign maps for local coalitions addressing surveillance and profiling by local law enforcement, or military detention under the NDAA. To get involved in any of these efforts, please email the BORDC Organizing Team at organizing (at) bordc (dot) org. We’re eager to hear from you and help support your activism!
- Nationwide: Campaigns emerge to address domestic surveillance drones
- Boston and Cambridge, MA: Diverse coalition takes action in several ways
- Hartford, CT: Public education on how immigration enforcement could undermine civil liberties
- New York City, NY: Residents gather to challenge drones and detention, while lawsuit proceeds vs. NYPD stop-and-frisk profiling
- Annapolis, MD: Statewide coalition challenges NDAA, plans upcoming discussion event
- Asheville, NC: Coalition mobilizes to support proposed Civil Liberties Ordinance
- Cleveland, OH: Coalition launches monthly vigils, bus tour, and petitions
- Chicago, IL: Coalition mobilizes to challenge suppression of dissent, anti-immigrant profiling
- Madison, WI: New coalition initiates public education campaign
- Helena, MT: House votes unanimously to approve bill vs. NDAA
- Los Angeles, CA: Coalition plans community mobilization for upcoming Police Commission meeting
- San Francisco, CA: The 18th city to say “No!” to indefinite detention under the NDAA
- Seattle, WA: Community considers racial profiling and drones
- Friday Harbor, WA: Coalition organizes educational forum
Earlier this month, Representatives Ted Poe (R-TX) and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) introduced the Preserving American Privacy Act of 2013 (HR 637), a bipartisan bill that would establish basic legal ground rules for the domestic use of unmanned drone aircraft. The principles now governing searches by this new technology are vague, and the clarity of this bill would greatly benefit both police and the public.
The Cyber Information and Sharing Act (CISPA) was first introduced last year by Representatives Mike Rogers (R-MI) and Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD). It prompted widespread opposition, including a veto threat from President Obama, in addition to a petition with over 800,000 signatures, and a widespread online campaign dubbed “Stop Cyber Spying Week.” Nonetheless, CISPA is back.
Calls for comprehensive reform of federal immigration law have prompted a bipartisan debate on Capitol Hill. Most observers, however, have overlooked how stronger immigration enforcement could undermine the rights of not only immigrants, but also US citizens.
On March 15, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit ruled that the CIA must respond to a FOIA request by the ACLU seeking information about the targeted killing program using drone aircraft. While the decision does not require the actual disclosure of the documents, which the lawsuit will now move on to address, it does represent a rare example of the federal judiciary standing up to government secrecy and asserting an independent check and balance.
On March 15, a federal judge in California struck down National Security Letters (NSLs) as unconstitutional violations of free speech. US District Judge Susan Illston ordered the Justice Department and FBI to stop issuing NSLs, which are unilateral demands for private information unsupported by a judicial warrant, and also ordered them to stop enforcing gag orders attached to NSLs in other cases.
On February 26, 2013, the US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to allow warrantless wiretapping to continue. The controversial decision places the National Security Agency (NSA) above the law and insulates it from judicial review.
The transpartisan grassroots movement against the domestic detention provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is growing. Nearly 20 cities have passed resolutions supporting Due Process, and organizers are using Facebook to help build statewide campaigns in several states.
BORDC supports grassroots organizers as they build diverse coalitions seeking local protections and civil rights and civil liberties. A pair of upcoming convenings offer opportunities for organizers to travel to the Northeast in April, or Bay Area in May, to share skills and case studies with allies from other cities.
To help encourage outreach, public education, and grassroots mobilization, BORDC has provided micro-grants to coalitions that have participated in one of BORDC’s anchor convenings, such as the May 2012 convening in Chicago. Grants of $300 to $500 are available to help active coalitions expand their local visibility, host events, or build capacity.
March 20, 2013 at 5:00 pm
- 3/20, Kathy Matheson, Associated Press, Judges asked to rule on warrantless GPS tracking
- 3/20, Tony Romm, Politico, CISPA panic may be premature
- 3/19, Alex Fitzpatrick, Mashable, Reddit, Craigslist and 30,000 Other Websites Oppose CISPA
- 3/19, Emily Andrews, Salt Lake (UT) Tribune, Utah Sen. Lee sponsors email privacy bill
- 3/19, Daniel Klaidman, The Daily Beast, Exclusive: No More Drones for CIA
- 3/19, Glenn Greenwald, Guardian (UK), The FBI’s anticipatory prosecution of Muslims to criminalize speech
- 3/18, Petra Bartosiewicz, The Nation, NYPD Surveillance of Muslims Has Created a Climate of Fear
March 19, 2013 at 5:00 pm
- 3/18, Charlie Savage, New York Times, Former Pentagon Lawyer Offers Pros and Cons of Drone Court
- 3/18, Victor Luckerson, Time Magazine, Majoring in Drones: Higher Ed Embraces Unmanned Aircraft
- 3/18, Tim Wu, The New Yorker, Fixing the worst law in technology
- 3/18, The Associated Press, Idaho Statesman, Senate to vet bill against indefinite detention
- 3/18, The Associated Press, Washington Post, US military says hunger strike at Guantanamo has grown to 21 detainees, but no lives in danger
- 3/17, Hendrik Hertzberg, The New Yorker, The Drone Perplex: Rand Paul and Obama
- 3/17, Douglas Lucas, WhoWhatWhy, John Brennan in Grad School: Destroying Democracy Helps Save It
- 3/15, Garrett Epps, The Atlantic, Did Rand Paul Ask the Wrong Questions in His Drone Filibuster?
Subscribe to this blog via RSS