As Thomas Jefferson put it, "A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse."

Over the past seven years, we've resisted as many of these rights have been taken from us under the guise of the "war on terror." Now, it's time to renew the fight to win these rights back.

My name is Emma Roderick, and I'm the new Grassroots Campaign Organizer at the Bill of Rights Defense Committee. I'm excited to work with you all this year to support your efforts to hold our new administration accountable for restoring our civil liberties.

Several months ago, we launched the People's Campaign for the Constitution, a grassroots initiative to harness our collective power to restore our rights. To make our work as effective as possible, we want to know what issues are most important to you-where your passions lie and where you think we, as a movement, should focus our energy over the next year. Can you spare a few minutes to answer a quick survey?

The upcoming year is going to be critical. It's the best chance we've seen in years to get these rights back. But to be successful, we're going to have to work together even more effectively. BORDC is committed to restoring all of our civil liberties, but we need to know what your priorities are for the upcoming year and what tools we can provide to support you. Tell us in this survey.

Thanks so much for responding. I'd love to hear from you in more detail, too. Feel free to contact me if you're interested in getting more involved, need organizing support, or have an idea for the People's Campaign for the Constitution. I'm excited to hear from you.

In struggle,

Emma Roderick (emma@bordc.org)
Bill of Rights Defense Committee

BORDC Issues The "War on Terror" and The Constitution

"This booklet .. provides the basic tools with which the citizenry can begin to act to make this America again."
- Nat Hentoff

Northampton, MA, September 17, 2008 -- "The 'War on Terror' and The Constitution," a new booklet by the Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC), is a concise summary of how key anti-terrorism laws and policies enacted since September 11, 2001, affect Americans' constitutional rights. The new laws are organized into chapters corresponding to sections of the U.S. Constitution and articles of the Bill of Rights. Stories in each chapter show how the lives of innocent Americans and foreign detainees have been affected. BORDC is issuing the 24-page booklet on Constitution Day, the 220th anniversary of the U.S. Constitution.

Nancy Talanian, BORDC's director and the booklet's author, sees the booklet as a roadmap to show Americans the current status of their rights and liberties compared to where they should be according to the Constitution. "Armed with that knowledge," she said, "they can work with one another and with their legislators to restore the essential rights they have come to expect."

Nat Hentoff, a nationally recognized authority on the Bill of Rights, agrees. "No matter who the next president is or what the composition of the next Congress is," he said, "the extent and the depth of what the Bush administration has done to the Constitution and to our standing in the world will remain unless and until enough Americans know how much remains to be done-and this booklet by the Bill of Rights Defense Committee provides the basic tools with which the citizenry can begin to act to make this America again."

According to Talanian, "We now have substantial proof that human failures within our government, not the laws and policies in place prior to September 11, 2001, contributed to the terrorist attacks on that day. Furthermore, no proof has been offered to substantiate executive branch claims that new laws and policies such as the USA PATRIOT Act have made this country safer. One could argue that the government is wasting resources prying into the lives of innocent people and storing millions of their private records in databases and treating potentially all of us as terrorism suspects."

"The 'War on Terror' and the Constitution" (24 pages, $3.00) is available from the Bill of Rights Defense Committee at http://www.bordc.org/store.php. Download the booklet (PDF, 6.7 MB) at http://www.bordc.org/resources/war_on_terror.pdf.

In 2002, BORDC spearheaded a nationwide campaign that put city, county, and state governments on record for upholding their residents' constitutional rights. The passage of eight statewide resolutions and more than 400 local resolutions and ordinances led Congress to strengthen its oversight when it reauthorized the PATRIOT Act in 2006. BORDC's current focus is on the People's Campaign for the Constitution, a grassroots effort to hold members of Congress accountable to their oaths to uphold the Constitution.

Links:

Download high and low resolution PDFs of The "War on Terror" and the Constitution: http://www.bordc.org/press/war_on_terror.php

Order booklets online: http://www.bordc.org/store.php

Bill of Rights Defense Committee, http://www.bordc.org

People's Campaign for the Constitution, http://www.constitutioncampaign.org

BORDC Issues New Declaration for Independence Day
New York Times Ad Kicks off National Campaign

With Independence Day approaching, the Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC) is issuing a new declaration signed by nearly 600 people and organizations who reject sacrifices of their liberties in the name of security and who pledge their support for fully restoring Constitutional rights and human rights.

BORDC is running "A Declaration for Our Times" as a half-page signature ad in The New York Times on or around July 4. The group has also recorded the declaration as video and audio public service announcements.

According to Christopher Pyle, who wrote the Declaration, "The situation that we face today is in many ways worse than the situation that sparked the war for independence.  George W. Bush's violations of liberty far exceed anything that King George III ever did."

"Many Americans feel dispirited by the continuing array of freedom-robbing laws, policies, and government actions, including warrantless domestic spying, torture, and unlimited detentions, which they see as un-American," BORDC director Nancy Talanian explained. "In this Declaration, we are calling out the administration for usurping our constitutional rights and committing ourselves to resolving our grievances through all lawful means available, as the founding fathers did."

The declaration launches BORDC's People's Campaign for the Constitution, which is organizing local grassroots coalitions during the 2008 election season and beyond to hold candidates for public office accountable to the constitutional principles to which they must swear an oath.

In 2002, BORDC spearheaded a nationwide campaign that put city, county, and state governments on record for upholding their residents' constitutional rights. The passage of eight statewide resolutions and more than 400 local resolutions and ordinances led Congress to strengthen its oversight when it reauthorized the PATRIOT Act in 2006.  However, BORDC recognizes new approaches are needed.

"A major challenge we face," Talanian says, "is that Congress has been rubber-stamping the President's lawlessness on a range of constitutional abuses." She pointed to the administration's warrantless wiretapping program as an example. "Congress should be restoring the privacy of Americans' telephone calls and electronic communications and demanding specifics on how the administration violated the law. Unfortunately, Congress has repeatedly voted to change the laws that the administration has apparently been breaking," she said.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which signed the declaration, observed, "It is an immeasurable tragedy that as July 4th approaches, Congress appears poised to pass a bill that would betray the spirit of 1776 by radically expanding the president's spying powers and granting immunity to the companies that colluded in his illegal surveillance program."  EFF is representing several alleged victims of the warrantless wiretapping program in a lawsuit against AT&T.

In order to end the practice of Congress giving in to fear mongering about terrorism, Talanian said, "The people need to organize themselves locally and to meet with legislators and candidates face to face, in coalitions.  After all, the U.S. government was created to serve the people.  Therefore, we need to set the government's agenda and communicate to our representatives clearly that we are unwilling to accept suspensions of our liberties and of anyone's human rights in exchange for our government's promises of greater security."

Links:
The declaration page at http://constitutioncampaign.org/toolkit/declaration.php contains links to print, video, and audio versions of "A Declaration for Our Times" and related resources.

• Audio of the Declaration (MP3 -- 3 min. 22 sec.): http://www.constitutioncampaign.org/toolkit/declaration_audio.mp3
• Video of the Declaration on YouTube (3 min. 22 sec): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC_MF4giZxw
• See the "Declaration for Our Times" as it will appear in the New York Times: http://constitutioncampaign.org/ad/ad.pdf
• People's Campaign for the Constitution website: http://www.constitutioncampaign.org