Privacy & surveillance

The right to live, speak, and assemble free from government monitoring is foundational to democracy. When people know — or merely suspect — that the state is watching, they change their behavior. They attend fewer protests, speak less freely, and think twice before associating with disfavored causes. This chilling effect doesn’t require a formal prohibition. Surveillance alone can accomplish what censorship cannot.

The threat is not abstract. Governments that concentrate power have always found ways to turn surveillance tools against the people those tools were meant to protect. In the United States, federal agencies have deployed facial recognition and license plate readers to collect data on Americans doing nothing more than observing government operations in public. And Congress faces recurring pressure to authorize expansive surveillance powers with few guardrails — powers that history shows will be used against protesters, immigrants, and journalists.

Surveillance as political retaliation

When the government deploys surveillance tools against people exercising their First Amendment rights — observing, photographing, or speaking about its actions — it is not conducting law enforcement. It is conducting political control. The collection and cataloguing of personal information about Americans based on protected activity chills free expression without serving any legitimate government interest. Challenging that pattern in court, and exposing it publicly, is essential to stopping it.

Surveillance powers without accountability

Laws governing government surveillance were written for a different technological era — and have not kept pace with the tools now available to federal agencies. Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act empowers U.S. intelligence agencies to collect and review the electronic communications of foreign nationals — but in doing so sweeps up the communications of Americans without a warrant. Reauthorizing these powers without reform poses lasting risks to civil liberties — regardless of which party controls the White House.

Technology outpacing the law

Facial recognition, license plate readers, and AI-powered monitoring tools have given the federal government surveillance capabilities that existing law was never written to address. When anyone can be identified at any time, constitutional protections for assembly and association become paper thin. Closing the gap between technology and legal safeguards — through litigation, legislation, and public pressure — is one of the defining civil liberties challenges of this moment.

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