The Feds have skipped around the constitutionality of internal spying by getting fellow federal cronies to sign onto the idea and by selling it through pop culture. But states are fighting back.

First, the Supreme Court hands down opinions approving unconstitutional acts in the name of national security. The feds also use the secret FISA court to rubber stamp every act the NSA does.

Media gets in on the act too. Hollywood cheerleads anti-privacy measures like using biometric data unconstitutionality, bending the laws of search and seizure, and showing a non-stop playlist of police, intelligence, and pro-government fictional shows. Even, once credible news shows like 60 minutes, spend more time highlighting NSA fluff rather than digging into its unconstitutional acts.

But the promotional anti-privacy overload isn’t convincing many people, and the states are fighting back.

A variety of different measures will be enacted or are being considered by the states this year. A New York Times’ article lists all the different ways sweeping from the East Coast to the West Coast.

Ten states have passed privacy laws that update the vernacular to include modern technology. Some push back has come by tech companies due to the variety of privacy laws in all the states. Tech companies would prefer another unconstitutional law from the federal government be handed down to tell the states what to do. Instead, tech companies should be in talks with states. If tech companies are worried about the variety of bills out there, the legal teams they have set up to deal with different state laws should be best used to aid in writing bills and use common legal and technology terms. Also, tech companies should show their value to their customers’ privacy by using the state as a defense from the bullying of unjust federal mandates for their clients data. However, the best form of protest is in economics. If our privacy is being sold to the government then their bottom line of these tech companies should being impacted.

The article further states,

This year, Texas passed a bill introduced by Mr. Stickland that requires warrants for email searches, while Oklahoma enacted a law meant to protect the privacy of student data. At least three states proposed measures to regulate who inherits digital data, including Facebook passwords, when a user dies.

Our privacy is being exploited from a variety of measures including drones and even biometric data from driver’s licenses.

Eight states passed bills to ban anti-warrantless uses of drones by law enforcement. Many other states throughout the union introduced similar bills. ACLU was one of the prominent organizations sounding the alarm on the use of unchecked drones. Check out the Tenth Amendment Center’s legislative tracking for the Privacy Protection Act for the states that introduced and passed such bills here.

The New York Times continues,

California, long a pioneer on digital privacy laws, has passed three online privacy bills this year. One gives children the right to erase social media posts, another makes it a misdemeanor to publish identifiable nude pictures online without the subject’s permission, and a third requires companies to tell consumers whether they abide by “do not track” signals on web browsers…California set the stage on digital privacy 10 years ago with a law that required organizations, whether public or private, to inform consumers if their personal data had been breached or stolen. Several states followed, and today, nearly every state has a data breach notification law.

These are great firsts steps in the fight for our privacy, and the use of state action to help shield us from unreasonable searches and seizures.

Even more sweeping measures can be introduced into your state.

Last fall, the Tenth Amendment Center unveiled the OffNow.org campaign to fight against the NSA and its spying on Americans and the millions of others abroad in an unconstitutional dragnet of our digital lives.

You can take action to advance the OffNow campaign on many levels. 

On a state level, ask your state lawmakers to introduce the 4th Amendment Preservation Act.

The legal doctrine behind this is “anti-commandeering.” It’s the principle that the federal government doesn’t have the authority to force the states (or local communities) to carry out federal laws, regulatory programs, and the like. The Supreme Court affirmed this three times in recent years, the cases being: 1997 Printz, 2002 New York, 2012 Sebelius. It also affirmed this doctrine in the 1842 Prigg case where states refused to assist the federal government in capturing and returning runaway slaves.

On a local level, introduce resolutions and ordinances of the 4th Amendment Preservation Act.

Protest at your university. The NSA has made partnerships with many universities in all but 7 states. Click here to see what universities are partnered with the NSA in your state. Call for resolutions to be passed by your university to end the partnership.

Don’t let the federal government use students to exploit data or help in the dismantling of encryption standards.

Protest corporate sponsorships that aid in any process to the spy machine.

Opposing NSA spying on many levels will virtually shut down government spying. It first strips away resources desperately needed to store our personal data.

It stops coordination of illegally obtained surveillance to be used in criminal courts. Early last year, it was revealed that the NSA coordinates with other federal and state law enforcement authorities to help in convictions. The 4th Amendment Protection Act bans on all law enforcement acceptance of information provided without warrant, by the NSA or it’s Special Operations Division (SOD) and then hide the true origin of how this data was obtained.

The NSA needs corporations to hand over their data. Make sure your state has severe penalties on the books for any corporations providing services for or on behalf of the state which fill the gap and provide the NSA the resources it requires to stay functional.

The spying our federal government, is not doing this in the name of national security. A White House Review Panel concluded none of the blanket warrantless seizure of our online and communications data have not stopped one terrorist attack.

In fact, recent revelations have shown us that the NSA is using our own devices against us by tracking our every move with our phones, accessing our microphones and cameras, and even tracking our every keystroke.

The NSA in conjunction with the NDAA 2012 and 2014 will be used a sort of Bill of Attainder. The spying is not directed at terrorists, but the individuals here in the US and abroad.

Kelli Sladick

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