ACLU Files Lawsuit Over NSA Phone Surveillance - MORE

◼ The ACLU has just filed a lawsuit challenging several in the Obama administration over its indiscriminate scooping up of phone records. - Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion

The ACLU has just filed a lawsuit challenging several in the Obama administration over its indiscriminate scooping up of phone records.

◼ In the wake of the past week's revelations about the NSA's unprecedented mass surveillance of phone calls, today the ACLU filed a lawsuit charging that the program violates Americans' constitutional rights of free speech, association, and privacy. - ACLU

This lawsuit comes a day after we submitted a motion to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) seeking the release of secret court opinions on the Patriot Act's Section 215, which has been interpreted to authorize this warrantless and suspicionless collection of phone records.

Last week, The Guardian released an order issued by the FISC that compelled a Verizon subsidiary—Verizon Business Network Services (VBNS)—to hand over, on an "ongoing, daily basis," details for every phone call placed on its network for a prospective three-month period. Collecting those details—"metadata" that reveals who people talk to, for how long, how often, and possibly from where—allows the government to paint an alarmingly detailed picture of Americans' private lives. The FISC order cited Section 215 as its legal basis, yet the breadth of the authority it granted to the government is simply incompatible with the text of the statute.

As an organization that advocates for and litigates to defend the civil liberties of society's most vulnerable, the staff at the ACLU naturally use the phone—a lot—to talk about sensitive and confidential topics with clients, legislators, whistleblowers, and ACLU members. And since the ACLU is a VBNS customer, we were immediately confronted with the harmful impact that such broad surveillance would have on our legal and advocacy work. So we're acting quickly to get into court to challenge the government's abuse of Section 215.

◼ Nine Companies Tied to PRISM, Obama Will Be Smacked With (Another) Class-Action Lawsuit Wednesday - US News & World Report

AOL, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, PalTalk, Skype, Yahoo! and Youtube will be named in the suit, attorney says

AB 711 would ban lead ammunition for hunting

◼ It may not seem like it, but it’s been more than a generation now that lead shot was banned for all waterfowl hunting and replaced with materials such as steel. - George deVilbiss/Auburn Journal

In regions where the condor soars, all lead-based ammunition has been banned, and the condor has made a great comeback from nearly depleted numbers.

Now there’s a move in the state Legislature to ban all lead ammunition via AB 711. That means you can’t be in possession of any lead-based ammunition for all hunting anywhere in the state. Stores would have in stock nothing but non-lead ammunition.

AB 711 recently passed its committee test with vote of a 9 ayes, 5 no’s and one abstain to advance to the Assembly Floor. If it becomes law, the ban would take full effect in 2016.

When I contacted the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, I was told the bill was under review and DFW hadn’t taken a position. Now that the bill is advancing, there is an urgency factor if you’re like many recreational shooters and hunters that oppose the bill.

If you oppose the bill, contact your legislator immediately. The vote could come soon.

◼ AB 711 Assembly Bill - Bill Analysis - leginfo.ca.gov

◼ California Lead Ammunition Ban (AB 711) Goes to Assembly Floor - NRA/ILA

Contact your state Assemblyman IMMEDIATELY

Earlier this week, the California Assembly Appropriations Committee voted 11 to 5 to approve a proposed statewide lead ammunition ban for all hunting, Assembly Bill 711. AB 711 would make California the first state in the nation to prohibit the use of all lead ammunition for hunting. This bill now goes to the state Assembly floor where it is expected to be brought up for a vote soon. The NRA urges all hunters, recreational shooters and gun owners to actively oppose AB 711. We strongly urge you to contact members of the state Assembly. Please forward this alert to your family, friends, fellow sportsmen and gun owners throughout California and urge them to do the same. Contact information for all state Assemblymen can be found here.

Be sure to check out HuntForTruth.org’s ◼ shocking new video opposing AB 711 and its recent hard-hitting rebuttal to the bill sponsor’s alleged “facts” sheet in support of the bill. This video and the rebuttal reveal the truth regarding lead ammunition, and expose the misinformation being spread by the ammunition ban proponents in their latest attack on hunters that is being disguised as a campaign to “get the lead out.”

Please act now! Visit the HuntForTruth.org website and Facebook page and “like” us, “share us with your friends, and anyone else you think may be interested in helping to fight this serious assault on hunting. You can also follow HuntforTruth.org on YouTube.

◼ Click here to receive e-bulletins from Hunt for Truth

You can also remain informed on important issue to hunters, like California’s AB 711 and other attempts to ban traditional ammunition at ◼ NRAhuntersrights.org.

◼ It has long been theorized the federal and state governments may attempt to significantly regulate ammunition as a roundabout way to infringe on the right of the general populace to keep and bear arms. - gunssavelivesa.net

Take Action! California sportsmen and women must contact their State Senators today. Tell them to vote NO on AB 711. To find your Senator’s contact information visit the ◼ USSA Legislative Action Center

California Governor Jerry Brown
State Senator Noreen Evans
State Assembly Wesley Chesbro

Ron Paul Blasts NSA Defenders On Piers Morgan: 'You're Justifying Dictatorship!'

Rand Paul: Big Brother Really Is Watching Us

◼ Monitoring hundreds of millions of phone records is an extraordinary invasion of privacy. - Ran Paul/Wall St. Journal

When Americans expressed outrage last week over the seizure and surveillance of Verizon's client data by the National Security Agency, President Obama responded: "In the abstract, you can complain about Big Brother . . . but when you actually look at the details, I think we've struck the right balance."

How many records did the NSA seize from Verizon? Hundreds of millions. We are now learning about more potential mass data collections by the government from other communications and online companies. These are the "details," and few Americans consider this approach "balanced," though many rightly consider it Orwellian....

To protect against the invasion of Americans' privacy, I have introduced the Fourth Amendment Restoration Act. I introduced similar Fourth Amendment protections in December and again just last month. Both measures would have prevented the data-mining we're now seeing, but both bills were rejected by the Senate. We will see if this time my colleagues will vote to support the Constitution that they all took an oath to uphold.

I am also looking into a class-action lawsuit to overturn the decisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that allowed for this to happen. I will take the fight all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary. My office has already heard much enthusiasm for this action.

The administration has responded to the public uproar by simply claiming that it is allowed to have unlimited access to all Americans' private information. This response is a clear indication that the president views our Constitutional "right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects" as null and void.

If this is the new normal in America, then Big Brother certainly is watching and it's not hyperbolic or extreme to say so. Nor is it unreasonable to fear which parts of the Constitution this government will next consider negotiable or negligible.

JONAH GOLDBERG: The IRS and NSA scandals show the president can't be trusted to keep politics out of government.

◼ We can't trust Obama - Jonah Goldberg/LA Times

AP Demolishes the Obama Presidency in One Brutal Piece

◼ If you’re a Democrat, you might want to hold your hand over your child’s eyes. - Independent Journal Review

This is from Liz Sidotti of the Associated Press (that’s right — the AP):

Read the whole delicious thing, savor it, and then share the news to your friends who may not understand what “right-wingers” have been squawking about for four long years.

◼ COLUMN: MOUNTING CONTROVERSIES ARE ALL ABOUT TRUST - LIZ SIDOTI | The Associated Press