22 Quotes by Ann Beeson

To avoid the giant ear of the NSA, journalists and lawyers now have to make expensive trips overseas to speak with their sources and clients. We are asking the court to halt the illegal spying program now to prevent even more harm to the free speech and privacy rights of Americans.

This type of investigation is really a form of intimidation and a message to activists that they will pay a price for speaking out, ... The posting of publicly available information about people who are in the news should not trigger an investigation.

We are obviously very much looking forward to the day where they can explain how it felt to be under threat of criminal prosecution for merely identifying themselves. The clients are happy that the fight over this gag is nearing its end.

criminal statute that violates a whole range of protected speech.

It would be naive for our clients ... to assume that their calls and e-mails are not being intercepted.

The most immediate concern we have is that if Congress passes the House version, our client could actually go to jail for participating in the Patriot Act debate.

This is obviously guilt by association and not interceptions based on probable cause.

This calls into question every time the government has relied on national security to impose secrecy. The only reason to gag our clients was to stifle their free speech rights in the debate over the Patriot Act. The government flip-flop confirms our suspicions.

Although the government claims the censorship law is necessary to protect minors, it has not even used all of the tools currently available to protect them from sexually explicit content.