Bill of Rights Defense Campaign

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Bill of Rights Defense Committee: Ten years of standing for liberty when our government won't

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Sign up for updates from the Bill of Rights Defense Committee. Our monthly newsletter will keep you up to date and timely action alerts will let you know about opportunities to raise your voice.

For more news, subscribe to our daily news digest and get the day's civil liberties headlines in your inbox every weekday afternoon.

Take action

For ideas about how to defend constitutional rights, visit BORDC's action menu!

Take Action

Stop military detention for US citizens

In America, the right to trial is fundamental, as are freedom of speech, assembly and the right to due process. The detention provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) signed into law on December 31, 2011, threaten each of these rights by authorizing the indefinite military detention of anyone—even US citizens—without trial.

Shine a light on the FBI

Over the past decade, the FBI has abused its investigative powers, violated its own guidelines, and avoided accountability by keeping its actions secret and actively misleading courts, Congress, and the American people. Stop the FBI's assault on the First and Fourth Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans.

To learn more about the FBI's violations of civil liberties and constitutional rights, watch—and share—this video.

Reverse and fix PATRIOT Act powers

In spring 2011, congressional leaders made a back-room deal to extend the PATRIOT Act for four more years—without meaningful debate or long overdue protections for civil liberties.

The JUSTICE Act would fix many of the PATRIOT Act's abuses of civil liberties and restore constitutional rights. But even though President Obama himself echoed our concernson the campaign trail, no member of Congress has yet introduced the JUSTICE Act in the current congressional session.

Make your town do what the federal government won't

BORDC has developed the Local Civil Rights Restoration (LCRR) campaign to help build broad coalitions between diverse communities impacted by mass surveillance and racial and ethnic profiling, whether in the war on terror, war on drugs, or the war on immigrants.

LCRR campaigns are currently active in 30 cities across the country. These campaigns are building support for reforms that allow individual cities and towns to do what the federal government has not: protect the Fourth Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans. The LCRR campaigns' reforms create enforceable protections against racial and ethnic profiling, local police participation in federal immigration enforcement, and government spying without suspicion of criminal activity.


Civil liberties updates

Read our blog for more on the latest civil liberties issues.

The People's Blog for the Constitution features daily summaries of breaking news, insightful analysis, and occasional original reporting by a team of grassroots bloggers.


In the News:

6/1, Associated Press, Judge in Trayvon Martin Case Revokes Bond of Zimmerman

5/31, Cora Currier, Pro Publica, Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Drones

5/31, Art Keller, Foreign Policy, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed: The outsourcing of extraordinary rendition?

5/31, Daphne Eviatar, Gabor Rona, Foreign Policy, Kill the Kill List

5/31, David Kravets, Wired, Congress Looking Happy to Reauthorize Broad, Secret Spying Powers

5/31, Marc Thiessen, Washington Post, The Obama-Bush doctrine

More News >

Honor real patriots

Each month, BORDC recognizes a grassroots activist working to restore civil liberties.

NYC Jewish Tech Meetup w/ Nick Merrill

Nicholas Merrill, national security letter resister and Patriot Award honoree

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David Cole
"BORDC is political organizing at its best. It gives ordinary people concrete ways to get involved in the struggle for justice in the wake of 9/11. It deserves our support."

Professor David Cole

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Watch BORDC's video on national security letters, FBI Unbound. Order it on DVD at our online store.

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Shahid Buttar
BORDC's Shahid Buttar debated how counter-terrorism policies threaten civil liberties with Heather Hurlburt of the National Security Network for Bloggingheads.tv in October 2010, in a video highlighted by The New York Times.

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