How we're defending your right to criticize the government.



Friend –

You may remember that earlier this year, we filed two lawsuits against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after it tried to force tech companies to hand over sensitive personal data of individuals who had been critical of the agency online.

In both cases, DHS quickly withdrew after being challenged. Even more sinister is that DHS has displayed an abusive pattern of withdrawing its subpoenas time and again to prevent a judge from ruling that these intimidation tactics are, in fact, illegal.

That's why our fight didn't end when we successfully protected our clients. We want to know the extent of DHS's effort to chill the speech of everyday Americans who are doing nothing more than exercising their constitutional rights. And we want to be sure that the agency receives a message: you can't abuse your power by weaponizing the legal system.

Here's how our fight continues:

* We've filed a motion for attorney fees in our case in which DHS issued subpoenas to unmask the identities of those running the Montco Community Watch Facebook and Instagram accounts. DHS must know that if it decides to use scare tactics, it's going to cost them.

* We've filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to uncover the extent of DHS's campaign to silence online critics. Due to DHS's failure to respond, our request has escalated into a lawsuit. Our plan is to share the information we collect with the public, other community and organizational advocates, and with academics studying the federal government's overreach.

Together, we can defend our rights to speak out, and to do so anonymously if we choose, without the fear of government retaliation.

If you are looking for ideas on how to join the fight for justice and accountability, you can download our Democracy Takes Us All toolkit <[link removed]> for inspiration.

Thanks for all you do,


Mike Lee
Pronouns: He, him, his
Executive Director, ACLU of Pennsylvania


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