Statement

This morning, the FBI announced internal procedural changes that are intended to increase accountability for violations of internal rules governing searches of Americans’ communications acquired under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). These changes, however, are insufficient to protect Americans’ privacy and out of touch with the concerns expressed by lawmakers and the American public. The Brennan Center and twelve other national organizations oppose reauthorization of 702 without wide-ranging reforms to FISA and related authorities, including a warrant requirement for government searches of Section 702-acquired data to find Americans’ communications.

The Brennan Center joins twenty civil society organizations in opposing reauthorization of Section 702, a foreign intelligence surveillance authority that the government is using to gain warrantless access to Americans’ communications, without significant and wide-ranging surveillance reforms.

The Brennan Center for Justice and Giffords Law Center write to the Texas House of Representatives in opposition of H.B. 636, which would authorize election judges, early voting clerks, and deputy early voting clerks to carry handguns at polling places.

In this letter, the Brennan Center, along with the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc., urges the Nobel Committee to award the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize to the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition (FRRC) for its unwavering leadership on strengthening democracy. In November 2018, FRRC achieved the extraordinary victory of garnering the support of nearly two-thirds of Florida voters from across the political spectrum to expand access to voting with the successful passage of Amendment 4.

The Brennan Center urged the Federal Election Commission to updates its rules governing candidate salaries and related compensation to make it easier for people from all walks of life to run for and win office.

In this public comment letter, the Brennan Center writes to support a proposed amendment to the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines that would allow judges to grant compassionate release based on non-retroactive changes to sentencing laws. If adopted, the proposal would help reduce extreme and unnecessary sentences. The comment serves to explain why that change is within the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s mandate and consistent with public safety.

In this public comment letter, the Brennan Center commends the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) for their continued development of policies that allow incarcerated people to develop financial planning skills but outlines the potential harms of their proposal that would allot 75 percent of deposits placed in an incarcerated person’s commissary account from community sources to be deducted for restitution and other justice system obligations. The letter also expresses concern about the addition of language regarding incarcerated people’s ineligibility to earn or apply First Step Act Time Credits for non-participation in the program.

The Brennan Center urged the commission to update its rules to ensure that when candidates pay influencers or use other nontraditional means to reach voters online the relevant communications are transparent.

On December 2, 2022, the Brennan Center joined seventeen cross-ideological organizations in urging congressional leadership to prioritize passage of National Emergencies Act reform during the current Congress.

On November 21, the Brennan Center for Justice submitted comments to the FTC, detailing Meta and Twitter’s inadequate enforcement of their surveillance policies and urging the FTC to hold formal sessions to obtain more information.