Free Press Joins Lawsuit to Stop NSA Spying

WASHINGTON -- On Tuesday, Free Press joined a lawsuit filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation against the U.S. government over its controversial domestic spying program that collects, stores, searches and analyzes in bulk the telephone records of millions of Americans.

The suit alleges that the government is violating the First Amendment right of association by gaining access to the phone records of political and activist organizations and their members.

Free Press President and CEO Craig Aaron made the following statement:

“There’s no doubt that when the government tracks, logs and analyzes Americans’ phone records there’s a chilling effect on activist organizations, including Free Press and its more than 600,000 members. The freedom to communicate is absolutely vital to an organization that relies on daily interactions with its activists to challenge government and corporate wrongdoing and advocate for Internet and press freedom.

“The diverse group of plaintiffs in this case is further evidence of the far-reaching impact of the government’s spying program. This is not about right versus left; it’s about right versus wrong. Our freedom to connect and communicate is in jeopardy. We hope this case will bring to light the full extent of government spying and put an end to unconstitutional surveillance.”