Blog of Rights
Michelle
Richardson

Michelle Richardson is a Legislative Counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union Washington Legislative Office where she focuses on national security and government transparency issues such as the Patriot Act, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, cybersecurity, state secrets and the Freedom of Information Act. Before coming to the ACLU in 2006, Richardson served as counsel to the House Judiciary Committee where she specialized in national security, civil rights and constitutional issues for Democratic Ranking Member John Conyers (D-Mich.).

01/11/2013
FOIA

A FOIA White Out

By Michelle Richardson, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 4:46pm

Secret law exists inside the United States.

As we wrote a few weeks ago, one of the main issues discussed on the Senate floor during the FISA debate was secret law.  Under the law,  the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court makes secret interpretations and secret rulings about something that should never be secret: our constitutional rights. Sen.  Jeff Merkley (D-OR) fought for an amendment that would have required the administration to release the court’s opinions, to provide unclassified summaries of them, or to certify how many there are and why they can’t be released.

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07/19/2012
Cybersecurity

New Cybersecurity Amendments Unveiled to Address Privacy Concerns

By Michelle Richardson, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 5:28pm

No cyber news is usually good news, but today is an exception.  Senators have unveiled significant privacy amendments that will be incorporated into S. 2105, the Cybersecurity Act.  Authored by Sens. Lieberman, Feinstein, Rockefeller and Collins, the bill provides comprehensive cybersecurity reform, including a new ‘information sharing’ program that permits companies to share internet info with each other and the government. 

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06/01/2012
Warrantless Wiretapping

In House Hearing, ACLU Tells Congress to Fix FISA

By Michelle Richardson, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 10:21am

Yesterday, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security held a hearing on the government’s warrantless wiretapping program (watch here). The law authorizing the program, the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, expires at the end of this year.

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04/01/2010

Gang of Eight Members Want a Bigger Gang

By Michelle Richardson, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 4:37pm

The “gang of eight” is a group of members of Congress with a pretty sweet name that includes the leaders, both Democrat and Republican, of the Senate and House, as well as the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees. The “gang” is briefed on covert intelligence matters by the administration when the president “determines it is essential to limit access” to classified or national security information in “extraordinary circumstances.” The "gang" is also sworn to secrecy to not disclose this information to anyone, even other members of Congress.

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04/25/2012
CISPA

In Advance of CISPA Vote, Congress Needs to Hear From You

By Michelle Richardson, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 12:53pm

Call your representatives today and urge them not to sacrifice the civil liberties of Internet users in any cybersecurity legislation.

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04/24/2012
CISPA

Opposition to CISPA is Growing!

By Michelle Richardson, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 1:01pm

It's day two of "cyber week" in the House, and there is good news to report: opposition to the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act is growing.

First, conservatives made a big splash over the last several days by vocalizing their strong opposition to how CISPA violates privacy and conservative values. A letter sent to lead sponsors of the bill from the American Conservative Union, Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Liberty Coalition and more, lay out all the many ways CISPA is bad for privacy from its failure to protect sensitive information to its lack of strict government oversight. Also, Congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul (R-Texas) wrote an op-ed for The Hill calling CISPA "Big Brother writ large" which he hopes will go the way of the Stop Online Piracy Act, and issued a statement and YouTube video that says CISPA represents the "latest assault on Internet freedom." And last, but certainly not least, libertarian Campaign for Liberty mobilized its members to contact Congress and urge a 'no' vote.

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04/19/2012
CISPA

Proposed Amendments to #CISPA Don't Protect Privacy

By Michelle Richardson, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 11:48am

We outline why privacy advocates continue to oppose CISPA, despite amendments proposed in committee yesterday.

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02/16/2012
Cybersecurity

Ice Cream: Very, Very Good. Cybersecurity Bill: Not So Much

By Michelle Richardson, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 7:44pm

Today, the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs committee held a hearing on S. 2105, the Cybersecurity Act of 2012, sponsored by Sens. Lieberman, Collins, Rockefeller and Feinstein. Introduced earlier this week, this bill delivers the comprehensive reform that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats have been promising since last summer. We will blog a more thorough analysis tomorrow, but short story is that the bill is a mixed bag for civil liberties. The good news is that the bill does not include a kill switch; the bad is that it permits companies to share American internet use data with military agencies like the NSA. So color us shocked that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on the hearing record that the ACLU thinks the bill is "very, very good." Chocolate ice cream is very, very good. The complex, 205-page, ground-breaking rewrite of existing law — well, needs a few changes to really protect privacy. Check back soon for more information.

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02/03/2012
Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity Bill Advances in House – But Does it Advance Privacy?

By Michelle Richardson, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 5:06pm

Wednesday, the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity passed a bill that will permit greater information sharing for cybersecurity efforts. Called the PRECISE Act, the bill as reported out of the subcommittee, will create an exception to privacy laws so that companies who hold Internet use information (like your browsing history or IP address) can share it in the name of protecting cybersecurity. This would be facilitated by a new public-private entity created to receive, process and distribute the data back out to companies and government agencies who would theoretically use it to protect their own networks.

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10/06/2011
Cybersecurity

Happy Cybersecurity Awareness Month!

By Michelle Richardson, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 5:50pm

We would like to educate you about how cybersecurity may justify the next series of big brother powers.

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