Anthony D. Romero

hey.. thanks. we filed the first suit against the nsa program a couple of days after snowden's revelations. we happen to be customers of verizon business network. so we had standing.. HA. we're in court. there are five other suits that have been filed too. don't worry. you haven't heard the last of this debate.

look... westboro baptist church... fred phelps. a total idiot.. homophobe.. (i'm gay). he organizes protests at military funerals saying that soldiers die because we give gay people like me their rights. i hate what he says. but when he gets a permit and does a protest on public land that's protected speech. sometimes our core principles are tested on the most pariah of folks/clients. we defend some of these clients because the principles are important..

ok. so let me keep going on the "harm" we do. and see if we can spark a conversation. look, in our democracy, we are all better off when there is robust debate. system of checks and balances. point counterpoint. so even if you don't agree with us on the actual position of the aclu, i think we make democracy stronger by promoting robust debate. a countervailing force to make sure we kick the tires on the things that matter to most americans. i.e.., our rights and liberties.

that's why we have to kick up a s---storm. members of congress work for us.. they should hear from us...

the sedition act, which is what the us govt is partly relying upon to prosecute snowmen, is overbroad. the aclu was actually formed in response to the sedition act of 1917. we don't think whistleblowers should get prosecuted for leaks in the public interest. re: snowden.. can i give you a non answer that will be answer?

definitely. in the 50s, our leadership got too cozy with hoover ... expelled communists. shared minutes of our meetings. they were afraid that hoover.. j edgar.. would shut us down. terrible betrayal of our values.

hard to pick one. gitmo. drones. surveillance. they are all up there

the internet providers are scared out of their wits about the recent nsa revelations as they are afraid that customers won't use them or trust them with their personal data. the best way to get to the public interest is to play to a corporation's self interest. so if google customers begin to raise concerns re: privacy and nsa with google, google will become more aggressive in pushing back against the govt. we see that already. so use your power as customers of the internet companies to demand more transparency and protection of privacy.

snowden... look... is this country better off because of his leaks. absolutely. we are having a robust debate about the breadth of govt secret surveillance that we haven't had before. i think he acted on his conscience and i am glad that he revealed the breadth of the nsa spying program. he is a whisteblower, despite what the white house says. and i think it is on to make sure that we keep this debate alive and ratchet back the govt surveillance

suing the DOJ. lol. that's something we have a lot of experience with. in the bush years, and now in the obama years. DOJ, on national security cases, works real hard to stop any of the cases from going forward on the merits. they often use procedural arguments to stop us and our allies. they fight us on standing grounds. like, you can't challenge the surveillance unless you can prove that you have been a subject of surveillance. hard to do when the surveillance is secret. they use state secrets arguments to bounce us out of court. saying that to even defend against an aclu suit would compromise state secrets. they argue that the courts have no role in reviewing these types of cases. the political question. that the exec branch needs to have the discretion without being subjected to judicial scrutiny... so litigating against the govt on national security has been incredibly frustrating. but it is too important not to try. and on some of them we have won