Privacy & Profiling
Abuse of surveillance and policing powers has been a recurrent feature of the post-9/11 world—from the National Security Agency’s secret warrantless wiretapping program to the FBI’s failure to adhere to legal limits on the issuance of National Security Letters, a problem that continues today. But Congress and the Executive have not taken action to ensure that officials respect the rules. Instead, they have simply changed the rules, making it easier for the government to obtain information about U.S. citizens and residents even when their connection to terrorism is tenuous or nonexistent.
The steady erosion of the limits on the government’s domestic counterterrorism authorities poses an unacceptable and unjustified threat to the privacy of law-abiding persons. It dramatically increases the risk that law enforcement decisions will be based on ethnic or religious profiling. And, it makes counterterrorism policies less effective in at least two ways: it wastes limited investigative resources on people who pose no threat to national security, and it alienates Muslim American communities whose cooperation is vital to our nation’s counterterrorism efforts.
The Brennan Center is working to ensure that the government’s counterterrorism efforts are properly targeted to the terrorist threat we face.
Symposium on Domestic Intelligence Gathering and Law Enforcement
Click here to read about the Brennan Center’s symposium on the myriad issues raised by law enforcement agencies’ increasing participation in intelligence gathering activities.
Rethinking Radicalization
Click here to read the Brennan Center’s report on law enforcement agencies’ flawed theories of radicalization and how those theories translate into broad-based intelligence-gathering in Muslim American communities, a practice that is both counterproductive and violates First Amendment rights.
Domestic Intelligence: New Powers, New Risks
Click here to read the Brennan Center’s report on the 2008 Attorney General’s Guidelines for Domestic FBI Investigations, which permit the FBI to employ highly intrusive investigative techniques without any factual basis to suspect wrongdoing.
Coalition Work
Click here to read about our work with the Muslim American Civil Liberties Coalition, a group we helped foster in order to respond to the New York Police Department’s troubling report on radicalization and which continues working on accountability issues with the Department.
Litigation
Click here to read our amicus briefs in cases challenging the government’s warrantless wiretapping program and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendments of 2008.
The Brennan Center filed an amicus brief arguing that the prolonged, warrantless use of GPS tracking devices to monitor a suspect's behavior is unconstitutional.
Amnesty Int’l v. Clapper (Amicus Brief)
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that plaintiff's have standing to challenge the constitutionality of the FISA Amendments Act. In December of 2008 and 2009, the Brennan Center for Justice filed supplemental amici in the case, urging the court to overturn the law.
Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project and Humanitarian Law Project v. Holder (Amicus Brief)
In these consolidated cases, which address the scope of the so-called “material support” statute, the Brennan Center submitted an amicus brief to the Supreme Court on behalf of academic researchers and a professional media association.
To Be or Not To Be Accountable
The Ninth Circuit splits the baby in two warrantless wiretapping cases.
The NYPD: Making the FBI Look Good
The Jose Pimentel case, and the FBI's lack of involvement, underscores the need for oversight of the NYPD's intelligence activities.
Time for Answers on FBI’s New Rules
Today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing is an important opportunity to press Attorney General Eric Holder on the FBI's new domestic intelligence guidelines.
Illustrations by Risko
Brennan Center Statement in Advance of AG Holder Appearance Before Senate Judiciary Committee
The Brennan Center released the following statement calling on Senate Judiciary Committee members to press Attorney General Eric Holder on changes to the FBI's domestic surveillance rules.
City Council Members, Civil Rights Advocates Press Conference Puts Spotlight on NYPD Operations
New York City Council Members, the Brennan Center for Justice, community groups and civil rights advocates gathered at City Hall today to raise concerns about the New York Police Department’s infiltration of the local 800,000-person Muslim community and to call for more oversight of the NYPD’s intelligence operations.
Brennan Center, Muslim Advocates, AALDEF Request NYPD Intelligence Records
Civil liberties groups today called on the New York City Police Department to hand over records related to the department’s domestic intelligence gathering operations.
Letter to Senate Judiciary Committee on FBI Guidelines
The Brennan Center for Justice and other civil rights groups sent a letter urging the Senate Judiciary Committee to request that the FBI postpone implementation of changes to its domestic investigations guidelines.
Letter to Senate Judiciary Committee on New FBI Rules
In a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, civil rights advocates called on Congress to investigate the reported changes to the FBI’s guidelines for domestic investigations.
Remarks by John Brennan at Brennan Center Symposium
John O. Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, gave the keynote address at the Brennan Center's symposium Intelligence Collection and Law Enforcement: New Roles, New Challenges.
The Police Department has the formidable responsibility of keeping New Yorkers safe from a terrorist attack. It is entrusted with significant powers and broad discretion in how to use them. It has done an admirable job in preventing violence. But last week, we were reminded that no government entity with such powers should operate free from independent oversight.
The GOP candidates in New Hampshire seem to have forgotten the state's motto.
Supreme Court Preview, Second Session: Access to Justice, National Security, and Civil Liberties
In advance of the second session of the Supreme Court's 2011 term, the Brennan Center calls attention to five cases involving important issues of access to justice, national security, and civil liberties.