Friend,

Passed 20 years ago today in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the Patriot Act set the stage for a massive wave of unwarranted surveillance in the United States — and people of color have borne the brunt of it. Tell Congress: It’s time to burn the Patriot Act.

Mass surveillance is racist. Why? Because we’re not all being surveilled equally: Muslim Americans, Black and Brown activists, journalists and dissidents are spied on disproportionately. The government shouldn’t spy on any of us, but the Patriot Act allows just that.

Your privacy matters: It’s the cornerstone of our First Amendment rights, and dragnet-surveillance laws like the Patriot Act undermine our democracy.

The intelligence community wants you to believe that mass surveillance keeps us safe. But in fact, mass surveillance not only violates our rights but can make it harder to identify actual threats. There are better paths forward that protect our privacy while also keeping us safe.

Here’s the good news: We’re winning this fight. With the help of supporters like you, we won a huge victory last year by gutting a key provision of the Patriot Act called Section 215. But this fight won’t be over until the entirety of the Patriot Act is repealed. Demand that your legislators put a stop today to racist spying and mass surveillance.

Twenty years on, it’s past time for Congress to course correct: Join us in calling on your legislators to #BurnthePatriotAct.

Thanks for all you do—

Rose, Sandy and the rest of the Free Press Action team
freepress.net

P.S. Twenty years ago today, in the wake of 9/11, the Patriot Act was passed. As a result, racist mass-surveillance policies have allowed government agencies to violate our privacy rights. Demand that Congress repeal the Patriot Act today.