Author: Jonathan Corbett

Jon Corbett is a civil rights attorney known for filing the first lawsuit against the deployment of TSA nude body scanners, as well as defeating the body scanners live in "How to Get ANYTHING Through TSA Nude Body Scanners." Twitter: @_JonCorbett, Web: https://professional-troublemaker.com/

House Votes NOT To Defund NSA Phone Spying

It was close (205-217), but the House of Representatives yesterday voted to allow the NSA to continue to use our tax dollars to spy on us.

Did your Rep vote YES (to defund) or NO (to continue government assholery)? Did you call them to thank them or tell them where to shove it?

Find your Rep: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/

Find their vote: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2013/roll412.xml

Make sure you call the Rep’s D.C. office. Not sure what to say on the phone call? Some ideas:

Hello, I’m a constituent in [city name]. I just wanted to express my appreciate that the Rep. voted in favor of defunding the NSA’s domestic phone spying. It is an extremely important issue for me, and will be remembered during election time.

-or-

Hello, I’m a constituent in [city name]. I just wanted to express my shock that my Rep. voted against the defunding of the NSA’s domestic phone spying. It is an extremely important issue for me, and I want to make the Rep.’s office aware that the public is paying attention and that [his/her] re-election is contingent upon being willing to stand up for my rights.

It takes literally 60 seconds to find your Rep and the phone number to call, and another 60 seconds to make the call. I did it today on my lunch break and it took me longer to pay for my check than to make the phone calls. Please take the time!

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How Can The Constitutionality of NSA Spying be Challenged? Even the Big Guys Don’t Know.

When the NSA’s domestic spying scandal broke last month, I wanted to sue the NSA so badly. I have standing, I have the legal understanding required to generate a colorable complaint, and I’m genuinely pissed to know that the government has my phone records. But, as I presently have four lawsuits in federal court already, in addition to a day job, I decided I wouldn’t be able to start a fifth without taking time away from the other four.

Instead, I created My NSA Records, a site where you could either request your records under FOIA or send a motion to the FISA court demanding the deletion of your records, the latter of which would be the route I would have used to initiate a court challenge to the spying. Under the FISA court rules, “a party” may move or petition that court and, foolishly for the government, there is no filing fee whatsoever. Were the motion or petition denied, it could be appealed to the FISA Court of Review, and then to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Not so, says the Electronic Privacy Information Center. Apparently interpreting “a party” to mean “a party named in a FISA court order” rather than to mean “anyone” (as I read it), EPIC filed a motion for a writ of mandamus with the U.S. Supreme Court. In it, they argue that the U.S. Supreme Court is the only court that may tame the rogue FISA court, stating that “the rules of the FISC bar EPIC from seeking relief before the FISC” and that “lower federal courts have no jurisdiction to hear EPIC’s appeal.”

Not so, says the American Civil Liberties Union! Their view, apparently, is that challenging the FISA court’s order isn’t necessary. Just challenge the constitutionality of the NSA’s actions, instead of directly challenging the order that allowed for those actions, and you’re good to go in those pesky “lower federal courts.” Their collateral attack on the FISA court order was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

So, which court really has jurisdiction to stop the NSA? Only time will tell, but one thing is for sure: the NSA is being challenged on every front possible.

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TSA Searching Bags in Penn Station

I have a friend who lives near Penn Station in midtown Manhattan who tells me that she sees the TSA there all the time, but never remembers to take a picture for me. Today, I had the “luck” of seeing it myself…

Smurfs in Penn Station

So, the next time someone says, “I don’t mind surrendering my rights in an airport; anything to keep us safer,” please remind them that the TSA has been plotting for years to invade every mode of transportation. They practice at Penn all the time because the NYPD is happy to join in their totalitarian distopia manufacture. They hit Amtrak stations, Greyhound terminals, music festivals, and political events. For now it’s a bag search. How long until the scanners and pat-downs are a “normal” part of walking down the street?

The time to demand change is now.

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Some “Light Reading” from the TSA, Some Denied Reading from the NYPD

Corbett v. TSA Administrative RecordMy fight against the TSA’s nude body scanners is approaching the deadline for briefs (in the Court of Appeals, the main briefs are, essentially, the entirety of your case). Pictured here is the “administrative record” as filed by the TSA. Some of it is public record (and will be posted here in full when I have a chance to scan it), other parts are claimed to be secret for various reasons (the release of which will be fought for in court at the appropriate time), and some parts are redacted (as if anything the TSA does would actually dissuade a terrorist). It totals about 1,600 pages (still about 30% shorter than ObamaCare!), and I’ll be asking for a time extension shortly to allow me a full opportunity to comb through each and every page.

My other three suits (illegal detention at FLL, NYPD stop-and-frisk, and NYPD street body scanners) are still awaiting rulings on dispositive motions, as they have been since April. I have no idea why these are going so slowly — the issues presented are hotly debated but not terribly complex.

nofoiaIn other news, I sent the NYPD a public records request a few weeks ago on a matter completely unrelated to my lawsuits (I asked for information regarding how they determine whether to accept or reject pistol permit applications). The NYPD has a “FOIL Unit” that is a part of its “Legal Bureau,” which is where the request was sent. I got back a letter stating that they don’t have the records, but that “NYPD – License Division” may have them. So, essentially, the NYPD asks for records requests to be sent to a specialized department that, obviously, doesn’t have the records in their office and refuses to go and get the records. I’m presently awaiting a callback from Lt. Mantellino to explain why he feels that this run-around is in any way legal.

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Top 5 Most Colorful Comments on TSA Nude Body Scanner Rulemaking

The TSA has to date published 5,472 comments on its proposed rule allowing it to “legally” (at least as far as the Administrative Procedures Act, still not so much as far as the Constitution) use body scanners, now approaching 3 years after they started. Analyzing a random sample of 100 comments, I posted last month that 97 of them were opposed to the scanners. This would extrapolate to 5,308 comments opposing the scanners and 164 in favor.

Some people took the occasion to really give the TSA a piece of their mind. Here are my top 5:

  • 5. Kiefer from Saskatchewan writes succinctly: “fuck you”
  • 4. Nina from California adds: “These screenings are a gross invasion of privacy, executed by assholes with god complexes and little education. I am disgusted! They don’t improve security and they unduly harass airline passengers. Do away with it!”
  • 3. Bobby, location not given, asks: “TSA. Name one real terrorist threat that has been stopped by your body scanning efforts. You can’t, but even if you could, it would not justify treating all people who fly like criminals. Fuck this rule and fuck the TSA as it now stands.”
  • 2. Robert from Oregon politely notes: “Attention, To whom it may concern within the Federal government. Shove these scanners up your collectivist asses. P.S. Read the ‘Bill of Rights’ you twats.”
  • 1. Fabian from California argues persuasively: “THIS IS A PILE OF SHIT GOVERNMENT AGENCY!! It does nothing to protect us, it’s only a fear mechanism to affect the nations psyche. We are NOT all criminals. These machines and policies are a violation of my 4th Amendment rights to be free from unreasonable searches. It is overly invasive and intrusive and is unneeded considering you are more likely to get struck by lighting two times than die in a terrorist attack. FUCK THIS POLICY AND AGENCY. Dismantle it immediately.”

Again, a huge thank you to everyone who participated. I’m looking forward to seeing what the TSA does. 🙂

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“Acquiring a Haystack to Go Looking for a Needle” – EPIC Sues NSA in U.S. Supreme Court

The Electronic Privacy Information Center has filed a petition for a writ of mandamus (in layman’s terms, an order asking a government official to do, or stop doing, something) to overturn the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court’s decision to invade the phone records of every American. Accusing the NSA of “acquiring a haystack to go looking for a needle,” EPIC soundly argues that FISA orders for productions have to: 1) relate to, 2) a specific, authorized, 3) foreign investigation, and that the NSA cannot meet any of those three points.

Since the FISA court is not an “inferior” court to the U.S. District Courts or U.S. Courts of Appeals, EPIC filed their petition directly with the U.S. Supreme Court, s it is the only court that directly (by Constitutional decree) has oversight.

Full petition:

In Re: EPIC (.pdf)

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No Surveillance State Month, Part 30: Start a Conversation

Last but not least: in order to get change to happen in the government, assuming you don’t have enough money to buy whatever change you want, you need to get society riled up. Snowden did a great job at this, because he illustrated for the country what was being done, and had the credibility to do so, rather than just saying, “yeah, the government is doing all this bad stuff” like many of us have assumed for years.

But, the spread of an idea happens not because the media talks about it, but because families talk about it at the dinner table, co-workers at the water cooler, Redditors bitch and moan on the Internet, etc. No matter how big your “megaphone” is, it is not bigger than the millions of small voices working together. Discussing your concerns and sharing with those who, perhaps, don’t understand why this is a problem, why this is a problem, is so important.

If you’d like to share things they can do to protect their privacy, here’s an index of this series (share this post to share the index, or pick a post and share the direct link):

It’s been an exciting month. I started this series before the Snowden leak, and it just so happened to have perfect timing. I hope it’s raised a little bit of awareness of how we’re all tracked and what we can do to stop it.

This is one of a 30-part series, “No Surveillance State Month,” where daily for the month of June I’ll be posting ways to avoid invasion of your privacy in the digital age. The intent of these posts is not to enable one to escape detection while engaging in criminal activity — there’s still the old-fashioned “send a detective to watch you” for which these posts will not help. Rather, this series will help you to opt-out of the en masse collection of data by the government and large corporations that places Americans in databases without their knowing and freely-given consent for indefinite time periods. We all have the right to privacy, and I hope you demand it.

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No Surveillance State Month, Part 29: Contact Congress

This one feels beaten to death, but while we all say it, I bet less than 5% of you have actually called your Congressperson and two Senators. I’ve called mine twice each since the NSA scandal broke out, and it’s easy.

First, how to find them: for Senators, Google. Simply type in their name (if you know it) or type in us senators statename to find the pair for your state. For Reps, use the handy tool put out by the House.

Next, what to say: all you have to do is tell them what you like or don’t like. You can be polite if you want: “Hi, my name is Jon Corbett, I’m a constituent in Miami Beach, and I’m concerned about the NSA’s collection of the information of Americans like me. Is the [Rep./Sen.] working on this?” You can be less polite if you want: “I’d like to know why my [Rep./Sen.] hasn’t gotten off [his/her] ass to fix this whole NSA mess. Has [he/she] not heard of the Constitution? What am I paying [his/her] salary for?” Either way, the person on the other end will probably give you the briefest of statements (or say “I don’t know”), ask you for some demographic information (ZIP code, area code, etc.), and then record your opinion in a database, which gets aggregated and put together as a report for your Rep. or Sen.

Remember, everyone has 2 Senators and 1 Representative, so you have the opportunity to make your voice heard — if you feel strongly about an issue, there’s no reason not to call all three. Each call will likely take 60 seconds. Don’t e-mail, don’t write. Your phone call is the best way to make an impression because you are using one of their resources for the time you’re on the line.

This is one of a 30-part series, “No Surveillance State Month,” where daily for the month of June I’ll be posting ways to avoid invasion of your privacy in the digital age. The intent of these posts is not to enable one to escape detection while engaging in criminal activity — there’s still the old-fashioned “send a detective to watch you” for which these posts will not help. Rather, this series will help you to opt-out of the en masse collection of data by the government and large corporations that places Americans in databases without their knowing and freely-given consent for indefinite time periods. We all have the right to privacy, and I hope you demand it.

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No Surveillance State Month, Part 28: Tweet Companies Who Abuse Your Privacy

Twitter is such a unique little social networking tool. Never before has 140 characters had the potential to be so powerful. As a company, it’s a great way to generate a buzz about your product or service. But on the flip side, while a company can participate in the Twitterverse, it can never control it. Anyone can send a public message to or about your company, and there’s nothing you can do to suppress that speech. Your only option to counter speech you don’t like is with more speech of your own — a First Amendment advocate’s utopia.

And so, I propose to you this: the next time a company takes more information than necessary, is found to have disclosed information in a way that you don’t like, or otherwise oversteps your privacy boundaries, let them know, in public, on Twitter. You make the company aware that you know (and disapprove) of their transgression, you let their customers know the same, and you place great pressure on them to fix the issue.

Companies must know that you’re watching in order to care. It’s really simple to give them that message.

This is one of a 30-part series, “No Surveillance State Month,” where daily for the month of June I’ll be posting ways to avoid invasion of your privacy in the digital age. The intent of these posts is not to enable one to escape detection while engaging in criminal activity — there’s still the old-fashioned “send a detective to watch you” for which these posts will not help. Rather, this series will help you to opt-out of the en masse collection of data by the government and large corporations that places Americans in databases without their knowing and freely-given consent for indefinite time periods. We all have the right to privacy, and I hope you demand it.

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No Surveillance State Month, Part 27: Third Party (“Tracking”) Cookies

When you visit a Web page, what gets displayed on your screen can be the combination of the resources of many servers: a YouTube video hosted by Google, an image hosted on Flickr, and text content hosted by WordPress can be the building blocks of a single page. Another one of those building blocks is often advertising.

By default on some browsers (but luckily, fewer and fewer newer ones!) each resource has an opportunity to store a cookie on your computer. Cookies are harmless in themselves — just a small amount of text stored by the server — but when a particular resource is hosted on multiple domains, the resource owner, using cookies, can hold a list of your visits to those domains, effectively tracking you as you go between Web sites that show the same ads. Some advertisers have such a strong hold on the market (Google, for example), that they are a part of a sizable portion of the Internet and develop a clear picture — too clear — of who you are.

The solution is a setting in most Web browsers that allows you to let cookies from the main resource (the server whose address is in the address bar) through, which is required for many Web sites to work, while not allowing servers of embedded resources (such as an ad provider) to live on your computer, which is required pretty much only to track you. Here’s how to do it in all major browsers.

This is one of a 30-part series, “No Surveillance State Month,” where daily for the month of June I’ll be posting ways to avoid invasion of your privacy in the digital age. The intent of these posts is not to enable one to escape detection while engaging in criminal activity — there’s still the old-fashioned “send a detective to watch you” for which these posts will not help. Rather, this series will help you to opt-out of the en masse collection of data by the government and large corporations that places Americans in databases without their knowing and freely-given consent for indefinite time periods. We all have the right to privacy, and I hope you demand it.

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